Statement at the conclusion of an IMF staff mission to Zimbabwe

At the request of Zimbabwe's authorities, an International Monetary Fund
(IMF) staff mission led by Vitaliy Kramarenko visited Harare during June 22–30,
2009 to review progress in implementing the government's Short-Term Emergency
Recovery Program, and to discuss the forthcoming mid-year revision of the 2009
budget and the underlying macroeconomic outlook. IMF staff met with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono, and other senior officials, as well as
representatives of the financial, business, and diplomatic communities.

As a result of improvements in macroeconomic policies, a nascent economic
recovery appears to be underway. A more liberal economic environment, price
stability, a deepening in financial intermediation, and increased access to
foreign credit lines underpinned a pickup in economic activity. The public
finances benefited from the recovery in economic activity and consumption. The
government matched expenditure to revenue during January-May 2009; and
significant increases in budget revenue in recent months have made it possible
to start implementing nonwage expenditures in critically important social areas.

To sustain positive economic trends and improve living standards, reform and
stabilization efforts need to be stepped up. In particular, the authorities
would need to create sufficient fiscal space for nonwage expenditures in social
spheres and critical infrastructure, establish workable coordination mechanisms
for attracting direct donor financing of priority social programs, improve
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governance, further promote financial intermediation,
and strengthen the business climate.

IMF staff will continue to provide policy advice and targeted technical
assistance in the context of regular visits. Access to IMF financing would
require donor financial support for arrears clearance to official creditors and
a sustained track record of sound policies.

The mission would like to thank the authorities for close cooperation and
warm hospitality.

Biti Signs US$5b Deal With China

Thursday, 02 July 2009 21:25
ZIMBABWE and China have entered into a US$5 billion deal involving the
mortgaging of the country's platinum resources worth US$40 billion which
will benefit Beijing more than Harare.

The deal - which
secures half of the US$10 billion that Zimbabwe is desperately looking for
to fund economic recovery - is likely to cause controversy in parliament due
to lack of transparency and massive financial prejudice to the
country.

Information to hand shows that Finance minister Tendai
Biti has signed a cautioned Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the
Eximbank of China (Eximbank) for the platinum-backed US$5 billion loan on
condition of explicit legal documentation and declaration of the obligations
of the Chinese.

"Zimbabwe and China have reached a US$5
billion platinum-backed deal," a government source said. "But the problem is
that the loan facility benefits China far more than Zimbabwe. This has
caused problems in certain circles of government and will definitely become
an explosive issue in parliament."

The deal is structured
in a controversial manner. Zimbabwe will get US$5 billion from Eximbank of
China and in return the Chinese get 50% equity in a US$40 billion platinum
concession without paying anything.

The US$5 billion will be
converted into equity for the Chinese, although it falls US$10 billion short
of the total value of their shareholding.

Since the
platinum concession is worth about US$40 billion, this means the Chinese
will collect US$20 billion out of their 50% equity - a whopping US$15
billion profit - at the end of the transaction.

Sources said
Eximbank was very happy with the deal. The Zimbabwe government is said to be
sulking but has no choice but to go along since it is
bankrupt.

Eximbank is the official export credit agency of the
Chinese government. It was founded in 1994, and is now the world's largest
export credit agency.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said
this week Zimbabwe had secured a US$950 million loan from the Chinese. China
also donated 4 000 tonnes of soyabean seed which sources described as
"sweeteners" to the mega-buck deal.

Zimbabwe's inclusive
government has secured about US$3 billion since it came into office in
February. Tsvangirai recently toured Europe, the United States and
Scandinavia in search of money, but only brought home pledges of a modest
US$500 million.

Sources said Biti held a meeting at his offices
on June 8 with Reserve Bank officials to discuss the US$5 billion deal with
China. They said although Biti has already signed the MoU, he was worried
about the skewed structure of the deal which prejudices Zimbabwe of billions
of dollars.

"In fact, the deal is badly structured because in
the end Zimbabwe loses the sort of amount of money (US$15 billion) which can
make this economy the most vibrant in Africa outside South Africa," a senior
Ministry of Finance official said. "It's a major deal but a financial
rip-off in many respects."

Sources said at the meeting with
Biti, central bank representatives also said the deal was exploitative. Biti
tasked Reserve Bank experts to come up with a blueprint on how Zimbabwe can
get maximum benefit from its mineral resources.

A paper is also
being worked out on mining legislation to provide a workable framework and
clear lingering controversies which beset the money-spinning sector of the
economy.

Zimbabwe has more than 40 different types of precious
minerals which make the country potentially one of the richest in Africa.
However, the country is currently going through a major crisis. Analysts
blame leadership and policy failures for the country's
failure.

Chaos Rocks Constitution-making Process

Thursday, 02 July 2009
21:21THE Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo and his staff are locked
in a cold war with MPs in the parliamentary select committee over the
constitutional reform process, further jeopardising the
exercise.

The fight between parliament administration and
the MPs' committee has exposed the cracks within the constitution-making
process which has been widely condemned by civic groups. Critics of the
process controlled by the three political parties in parliament say it is
not inclusive, participatory and democratic.

Information
obtained this week shows there is a major rift and tensions are rising
between parliament staff and MPs.

The fight is over the control
of the constitution-making process, including the planning of the
stakeholders' conference slated for July 9-12, invitation and accommodation
of delegates, tender for the conference organiser and the guest speaker at
the stakeholders' conference. Parliament wants Moyo to be the guest speaker
while MPs are pushing to invite prominent South African politician and
business magnate Cyril Ramaphosa.

Parliament's staff, who
include presiding officers and the management committee, budget committee
and the Standing Rules and Orders committee (SROC), and the all
stakeholders' conference subcommittee held a tense meeting on Monday to
discuss contentious issues.

Another meeting was held on
Wednesday at which the select committee of MPs clashed with parliament staff
and rejected their proposals, creating an explosive
conflict.

At the Monday meeting, the all stakeholders'
conference subcommittee was asked by presiding officers of parliament to
present its report on the progress it has made in preparing for the
conference.

In its report the conference subcommittee said it
had scheduled the event for July 9-12. It also said a tender advert for the
conference organiser had been prepared and presented to the MPs' select
committee which approved it with minor amendments. What was left, it said,
was funding to flight the advert.

The subcommittee said
accommodation for delegates was being identified with some hotels having
confirmed the numbers of rooms they are offering, while others had just made
promises.

The subcommittee further reported the MPs' select
committee needed a secretariat for the conference, thematic committees,
facilitator and a woman chairperson of the event.

After
that there was a fierce debate. The presiding officers said MPs could not
decide dates of the conference alone. They said the SROC must be consulted.
The officers also said the number of delegates could not be left to the MPs'
committee alone because it had budgetary implications.

The
presiding officers said the steering committee of parliament must give
guidance and "a political decision must be made because there are budgetary
implications of the number of delegates invited".

The officers
also said there were delays in placing an advert for engaging a conference
organiser due to budget constraints. They said hiring an outsider as was the
case with the media consultant required a downpayment.

Apart from this, there were clashes on the consultation process, the
outreach programme and the number of days for the conference. The presiding
officers said the conference, to be held at the Harare International
Conference Centre, should be one and half days, not three as had been
suggested by the MPs. Delegates should be 1 500, not 5 000 and the gender
ratio should be 50:50.

The issue of 70 consultative teams
and thematic committees of about 40 people per committee should be brought
to parliament staff since it had budgetary implications. The conference
facilitator and chairperson should also be left to SROC to decide. A joint
caucus of all parties in the process should be held to whip MPs into
line.

The administration of parliament must organise
accommodation, registration and accreditation for delegates, instead of the
event organiser. Allocation of delegates for parties must be based on their
representation in parliament.

However, presiding officers'
proposals were rejected by MPs, leaving the stage set for a major
showdown.-Staff Writer

Civil Servants to get Salaries

Thursday, 02 July 2009 21:19
GOVERNMENT will from this month start paying civil servants salaries instead
of allowances after it emerged that its coffers had improved.

Finance minister Tendai Biti is expected to announce the change when he
presents his mid-term policy statement on July 16.

Civil servants
have been getting a monthly allowance of US$100, which many said was not
enough to sustain them.

Biti this week confirmed that the
government would start paying a salary with effect from this month
end.He could not reveal the minimum salary that civil servants would
earn but said government was working from a narrow budget.

"We are working at decompressing and rationalising the wage bill of civil
servants and this review will ensure that civil servants start receiving a
salary but we are working from a narrow budget," Biti said.

The
salaries, unlike allowances, will differ according to positions. Sources
said the government's decision on salaries was designed to avert a looming
strike in the public sector.

"There is a brewing storm in the
civil service especially from teachers. There was fear that if nothing was
done urgently the teachers would strike. This was going to be a blow to the
all inclusive government which measures its successes on restoration of
normal services in the public sector," said one source.

The
sources said teachers were likely to receive starting salaries of about
US$300. - Staff Writer.

Journalists Appeal for Final Order

Thursday, 02 July 2009
21:16LAWYERS representing freelance journalists barred from covering a
Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) Summit in Victoria Falls
despite a High Court ruling the Media and Information Commission (MIC) null
and void are seeking confirmation of the provisional order as permanent
after Media, Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu opposed the
ruling out of time.

Selby Hwacha of Dube, Manikai & Hwacha
legal practitioners told the Zimbabwe Independent that Justice Bharat
Patel's ruling still stands according to the law after Shamu and his
secretary George Charamba failed to submit a notice of opposition within the
stipulated 10 days of the ruling.

Hwacha said Shamu and Charamba
were supposed to apply for condonation from the High Court and give reasons
why they did not file for opposition within the specified
time.

The lawyer argued that since Shamu and Charamba
challenged the application out of time and did not apply for condonation,
Patel's ruling was still valid.

He said: "Presently the
application for interim relief is still not opposed because High Court rules
on these matters are very clear. The respondents (Shamu and Charamba) did
not file notice of opposition within the required time. They filed their
notice of opposition five days later and didn't apply for condonation. We
are moving for confirmation of the provisional order as
permanent."

The journalists - Stanley Gama, Valentine Maponga,
Jealousy Mawarire and Stanley Kwenda - successfully challenged the legality
of the MIC following the enactment of the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Amendment (Aippa) No 20 of 2007.

The
amendment, according to the journalists, rendered the MIC a legal nullity
and replaced it with the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC).

Justice Patel ordered Shamu and Charamba to retract in writing and by
broadcast statements issued by their ministry relating to the accreditation
of the journalists according to the MIC before they could cover the Comesa
summit.

In his notice of opposition filed with the High
Court on June 24, Shamu claimed that owing to the Aippa Amendment Act, MIC's
name was changed to the ZMC and that "otherwise (there was) no change in the
status of the commission as a legal entity" with full corporate
powers.

Meanwhile, 89 applicants have shown interest in
becoming commissioners of the ZMC. Among those who lodged their applications
with parliament are MIC CEO Tafataona Mahoso, academics Claude Mararike and
Vimbai Chivaura, and pastor Gift Mabaudi.

lThere has been a
major editorial shake-up at the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (Zimpapers), the
publishers of The Herald, The Chronicle, The Sunday Mail, The Sunday News
and other publications.

Sources in the Zimpapers stable told
the Independent yesterday that editors of the newspapers were reshuffled and
that the new appointments were with immediate effect.

According to the sources, The Sunday Mail editor William Chikoto has been
moved to The Herald in a similar capacity, while Chronicle editor Brezhnev
Malaba has been moved from Bulawayo to replace Chikoto at the Sunday Mail.
Malaba will be deputised by Nomsa Nkala.

Innocent Gore, who was
the editor of the Southern Times in Namibia, has been called back home to
edit The Chronicle. Gore was replaced by Makuwerere Bwititi, who was the
editor of The Manica Post.

The Herald assistant editor
(business), Hatred Zenenga, will take over from Bwititi.

Former Sunday News news editor Herbert Zharare is now news editor of The
Herald. Paul Mambo remains as editor of The Sunday News.

Itai
Musengeyi was appointed Herald assistant editor while Ceasar Zvayi is the
night editor. Other changes include that of Sarah Tikiwa who has been
appointed editor of Zimbabwe Travel.

State Witness Vows not to Testify Against Bennett

Thursday, 02 July
2009 21:09PETER Michael Hitschmann, the former police reservist who
was jailed after the discovery of an arms cache on his property, was
released on Thursday and vowed not to be a state witness in the trial of Roy
Bennett, the MDC Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate.

State prosecutors say Hitschmann is the key witness in the trial of Bennett,
facing charges of attempting to commit acts of sabotage, banditry,
insurgency and terrorism.

Bennett's trial will start on October
13 this year. He faces life in jail if convicted. Bennett dismisses the
charges as politically motivated. But Hitschmann told journalists in Mutare
he would not be a state witness in Bennett's case.

This
will be a blow to the state's case against the MDC treasurer as Hitschmann
is the principal witness.He said Bennett has nothing to do with the
arms cache that was found on his property.

Hitschmann was
initially charged with attempting to assassinate President Mugabe and key
Zanu PF politicians in Manicaland. The charges were thrown out due to lack
of evidence. He was then convicted on lesser charges of possessing arms
without a licence.

He was sentenced to four years in jail but
served three years and three months.

"I was surprised to
hear that I was a state witness (in Bennett's case)," Hitschmann said. "I am
certainly not going to be a state witness. I find it surprising. Bennett
has nothing to do with it."

Hitschmann added: "He has not been
to my premises and there is no link between Bennett and the
firearms."

He said he was forced to incriminate Bennett during
torture by security agents.

"On the night of 6 March 2006
we were taken to Adams Barracks where we were tortured and forced to make
certain confessions and one of the confessions incriminated Roy," Hitschmann
said.

Adams Barracks is an army camp on the Mozambican
frontier.

"According to that confession, Roy and I were
plotting sabotage specifically of radio and communication equipment in the
area of Bromley somewhere outside Harare."

He said some of
the forced confessions were that he was plotting to assassinate President
Mugabe as he celebrated his birthday in Mutare.

Hitschmann said
he was also forced to confess that he was planning to assassinate key Zanu
PF members in Mutare, Esau Mupfumi, a wealthy businessman and Enock
Porusingazi, also a businessman and former MP for Chipinge South. - Own
Correspondent.

Constitution Splits Civic Society Partners

Thursday, 02 July 2009
21:08CIVIL society is split on the constitution-making process with
key members of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition - the National Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions - planning to
boycott a two-day "peoples constitutional convention" that begins in the
capital today.

The convention is facilitated by Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition and the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations (Nango) who are accused by the NCA and the ZCTU of backing the
"parliament-driven" constitution-making process.

Sources in
civil society told the Zimbabwe Independent that the convention would be
attended mainly by organisations backing the MDC and the current
constitution-making process.

The sources said the split was
also motivated by donor funds as civil society organisations jostle to
outwit each other for money to bankroll activities surrounding the
constitution-making process.

"The convention has been organised
by MDC fronts in the civil society and donor organisations," one of the
sources said. "The organisations support the current parliament-driven
constitution-making process because the MDC is involved."

According to information at hand, the purpose of the convention is for civil
society to define and adopt "fundamental and key principles on both the
process and content of the new constitution" and also to decide what course
of action to take if the yardsticks are not met.

But the ZCTU
and the NCA, according to the sources, were against what they see as a
meeting to discuss the "flawed" process.

The NCA and the ZCTU
have since last September - when the Global Political Agreement (GPA) was
signed by the country's three main political parties - campaigned against
the spearheading of constitutional reforms by parliament.

The GPA states that a parliamentary select committee will lead the process.
A 25-member committee has been selected by parliament and last week
conducted provincial consultative meetings.

A four-day
all-stakeholders conference is expected to start on Thursday under the
command of the select committee.

This process is what the NCA
and the ZCTU opposed, arguing that it was not people-driven and hence their
decision to boycott the civic convention.

The recent
controversy over the Kariba draft constitution - the strong Zanu PF
statements endorsing it and the MDC-T repudiation of it - has heightened the
NCA and the ZCTU's fears that the parliament-driven process would produce an
unsatisfactory political compromise.

In a letter to Nango on
Wednesday, ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibebe said the country's
labour organisation would not attend the convention or send delegates
because it "does not have faith" in the current constitution-making
process.

The letter was copied to the Zimbabwe Electoral
Support Network, Christian Alliance, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
Heads of Christian Denominations, Zimbabwe Aids Network, Bulawayo Agenda,
Zimbabwe National Students Union and others, key allies of the ZCTU and the
NCA.

"We made it clear to everyone that we are for a genuine
people-driven constitution-making process not one driven by and controlled
by parliament," read Chibebe's letter in the possession of the
Independent.

"We further submit that we are now worried to see
the supposedly umbrella organisations performing functions or encroaching in
areas which are the responsibility of specific
organisations."

In this case, Chibebe contended, the NCA was
the most suitable organisation to deal with the issue of the constitution,
whether they were in agreement with the process or not.

"We
are therefore extremely worried that it would appear your two organisations
would want to snatch the baton from the NCA and unfortunately 'head for the
mountains' instead of heading for the finishing line," Chibebe said. "Having
stated the above we further advise that we will not stop anybody or an
individual union to attend the gathering as long as they do not purport to
represent the ZCTU. We wish you well in your newly found responsibilities
and endeavours."

Lovemore Madhuku, NCA chairperson, yesterday
confirmed that the assembly would not attend the
convention.

"We are not attending the convention. We share
different strategies," he said. "We are in the process of consulting
like-minded societies with a view to call for a real peoples' convention for
a people-driven constitution."

Efforts to get a comment
from Nango were in vain at the time of going to press as the association's
spokesperson Fambai Ngirande was reportedly out of the capital and not
reachable on his mobile phone.

Ngirande, however, was quoted by
a local weekly yesterday saying the convention was historic and important as
it would "focus on developing a robust, meaningful and well coordinated
civic society engagement with the constitution-making
process".

A group of lawyers affiliated to the organisations to
attend the convention, Veritas, yesterday said today's convention would be
split into 14 working groups to look into various issues in relation to the
constitution, among them the political environment, the national economy,
gender and women, freedom of expression and the media, youth and children,
transitional justice and national healing, national values, social welfare,
land, judiciary, elections and security services.

The
groups, Veritas said, would reflect on the themes that various "clusters" of
civil society organisations have been working on.

The working
groups would then meet in plenary to arrive at the convention resolutions
that will be taken back for ratification by the participating organisations
and then presented to the parliamentary select committee.

"It is also hoped that the convention will result in building understanding
and strategic cooperation between the broad spectrum of civil society
organisations holding different views, ranging from those who are fully
committed to engagement in the parliamentary-driven process, to those who
are engaging in it with caution and with "bottom line" provisos already
worked out, to those who will be working outside it on educating the public
on constitutional principles," said Veritas, which will attend the
convention.

Commonwealth to Host Zim Indaba

Thursday, 02 July 2009 21:00A
COMMONWEALTH committee on Zimbabwe will next week host a roundtable
discussion in Johannesburg which the group of former British colonies hopes
will result in the mobilisation of humanitarian aid for the country and pave
way for a possible re-admission into the 54-nation club.

The
three-day meeting starts on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth
in a huff in 2003 after the group suspended the country after a flawed 2002
presidential poll characterised by rampant intimidation and widespread
violence.

But the Commonwealth remains keen to see the
diplomatically isolated state, which also has fractured relations with the
European Union and United States, re-engaged in the group provided democracy
and rule of law are restored.

The discussion, an effort to
re-engage Zimbabwe on the humanitarian front, was organised by the
Commonwealth Committee on Zimbabwe amid hopes of establishing a special fund
to advance humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe.

Carl Wright,
chairman of Commonwealth Committee on Zimbabwe, said: "Our aim will be to
marshal the Commonwealth's professional and other networks in support of
existing aid efforts, and the medium to long-term prospects for
reconstruction and development in Zimbabwe.

"We hope that the
roundtable will result in practical action plans and the identification of
the necessary resources to take these forward. Furthermore we hope that the
issues arising out of the roundtable will be brought to the attention of
Commonwealth Heads of Government when they meet in Trinidad and Tobago later
this year."

The Commonwealth committee says time is now ripe
for an initiative to bring together Zimbabwe civil society and Commonwealth
partners with three core aims to consult with Zimbabwe partners about their
urgent needs to formulate concrete and coordinated plans for practical
action and identifying resources for this work with a view to establishing a
Special Commonwealth Fund for Zimbabwe.

According to the
programme, various working groups would examine the immediate humanitarian
crisis across key sectors in the country and formulate responses on a
national and international level.

Regional Integration minister
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga would participate in the
discussion.

Other notable participants at the roundtable are
Moeletsi Mbeki, deputy chairman of the South African Institute of
International Affairs, Cephas Zinhumwe of Zimbabwe National Association of
NGOs, Christine Platt, president of the Commonwealth Association of
Planners, Fanie du Toit of the Institute for Justice & Reconciliation,
Jay Naidoo, chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and Cyril
Ramaphosa of the Commonwealth Business Council.

Zimbabwe
was suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 and quit the 54-nation group in
December 2003 after President Thabo Mbeki failed to get the country's
suspension lifted.

According to the court papers, the Zanu
PF supporters "planned and masterminded the unlawful deprivation of
plaintiffs' property as punishment/fines for being MDC supporters and for
voting against Zanu PF (in the March poll)".

Kadyamusuma
and Nyakuba are alleged to have been the leaders of the Zanu PF activists
taking livestock and grains "to eat and sustain their "bases", namely
Chawagonahapana and Avilla Business Centre in Ward 2 in
Katerere.

Eddison Njanji claimed in the court papers that
he lost eight chickens and three buckets of maize to Martin Njanji while
Chikata and Mugambiwa alleged that Kadyamusuma took his three goats and
three buckets of maize.

The plaintiffs alleged: "Attempts to
obtain assistance of members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police at Ruwangwe
police were of no use as the police refused to render such assistance or
arrest defendants for their criminal and unlawful conduct."

In a similar case, (case number 45/09) Givemore Chengetai Renzva alleged
that Zanu PF activists Kadyamusuma, Peter Masenza and Martin Njanji forcibly
took from him a spraying broom and a ploughing chain.

Clemence
Mawere claimed that the Zanu PF supporters took him to their Avilla Business
Centre base where he was interrogated and assaulted by Nyakuba and ordered
to bring livestock and grain.

The Zanu PF supporters
were identified as Tichaona, Courage, Mike and Obert Kadyamusuma, Richard
Bulawayo, Fungai Nyakurega, Paul Teta, Samuel Sanyamwera, Rhoda Biasi and
Peter Nyambo Masenza.The accused were yet to respond to the civil
court cases against them at the time of going to print
yesterday.

Meanwhile, in Bikita a court granted seven villagers
an order to claim about US$7 000 in damages for property looted by alleged
Zanu PF supporters during the campaign for the run-off.

Schools set Debt Collectors on Defaulting Parents

Thursday, 02 July
2009 20:56PARENTS of pupils who fail to pay school fees and levies
could lose household property and other valuables after schools in the
capital set debt collectors on them to compel payments.

Many
Harare parents woke up last week to scary threats from debt collectors after
various schools engaged their services.

The parents were served
with letters from debt collectors after some failed to pay fees and
levies.One letter from a debt collector to a parent reads: "Your
account has been handed over to us for collection. An amount of US$26 in
respect of levy/fees is now overdue and payable.

"In the
circumstances, we have been instructed to demand as we hereby do, payment of
the sum of US$26 at our offices within 48 HOURS, failing which we will
instruct the messenger of court to attach and sell your property without
further notice."

A Mabvuku parent told the Zimbabwe Independent
this week that they were afraid of having their property and valuables
attached after schools ordered parents to top-up fees and demanded higher
levies.

But Education minister David Coltart this week said
admission fees government announced in May for the second term of the
schooling year were enough while schools and parents needed to agree on
levies.The fees were set at US$10 for secondary schools and US$5 for
primary. Rural schools were exempted from charging fees.

He
said: "The admission fees we announced were deemed as enough this term. What
school authorities then need to do is to determine levies that should be
collectively agreed to by parents in a meeting."

Coltart
emphasised the need for school authorities to consult with parents in coming
up with amounts that should be paid as levies. But schools have engaged debt
collectors on parents who failed to pay levies.

Activists' Case Referred to the Supreme Court

Thursday, 02 July 2009
20:52THE case of six MDC-T activists and a freelance journalist
accused of terrorism was on Wednesday referred to the Supreme Court amid
revelations of how they were allegedly abducted and tortured by suspected
state security agents in violation of their constitutional
rights.

MDC-T activists Kisimusi Dhlamini, Zacharia Nkomo, Regis
Mueyi, Mapfumo Garutsa, Chinoto Mukwezaramba Zulu, Gandhi Mudzingwa and
journalist Andrison Manyere were due to be tried on Monday in the High
Court, but their lawyer Alec Muchadehama made an application before Justice
Charles Hungwe for referral of the matter to the constitutional
court.

In the application, Muchadehama said the applicants'
constitutional rights to personal liberty, protection from inhuman and
degrading treatment, and protection of the law were violated when they were
allegedly kidnapped, tortured and kept incommunicado last
year.

The activists and journalist are accused of bombing
police stations and railway lines last year.If the Supreme Court
is satisfied that the activists' rights were violated, Muchadehama said, it
should stay prosecution of his clients.

Muchadehama said the
state did not have any evidence against the applicants.

"The state does not have any evidence against the applicants. All violations
that were done, were done firstly as a way of trying to extract confessions
from applicants," he said.

However, state prosecutor Chris
Mutangadura argued that the applicants' application was "frivolous and
vexatious" in that (abduction and torture) allegations raised by the
applicants have not been proven before the court.

"The
applicants must establish certain facts before the court. Otherwise it
cannot make a proper determination," Mutangadura argued. "Should it be
established that their rights have been violated, then they should pray that
the case be taken to the Supreme Court."

Mutangadura submitted
an uncommisioned and unsigned affidavit which he claimed was authored by the
Minister of State for National Security Sydney Sekeramayi, denying that the
applicants were abducted and kidnapped by state security
agents.

The affidavit accused the applicants of raising
abduction and torture claims to escape prosecution.Justice Hungwe,
however, did not see the activists' application as "frivolous and
vexatious".The judge said the affidavit the state produced did not
show that the MDC-T activists and Manyere's application was frivolous and
vexatious.

"Give me evidence to show that this is a frivolous
application," Hungwe said. "That is not a frivolous application at all.
There is no need for all this argument therefore I refer this case to the
Supreme Court."

In his founding affidavit, Dhlamini -- the
director of security in the MDC-T -- said he and other applicants were
between November 25 and December 8 last year abducted by state security
agents, a move he claimed violated their constitutional
rights.

"We were taken to secret detention which we later got
to know was Goromonzi Prison. There we were granted no access to family or
medical or legal assistance. In fact we were held completely incommunicado,"
reads Dhlamini's affidavit.He said while in detention, police and state
security agents tortured them using various methods.

"The
attacks ranged from severe body assaults 'falanga-style', psychological
intimidation, excessive interrogation, drowning 'water boarding' and several
other methods whose particulars appear in our affidavits. We were for most
of the times kept in solitary confinement."

Govt Delays Gazetting of Ministry Responsibilities

Thursday, 02 July
2009 20:52FAILURE by the President's Office to gazette the Ministerial
Responsibilities for Acts of Parliament is creating accountability problems
over which ministry is responsible for executing certain parliamentary acts,
it has emerged.

The Ministerial Responsibilities for Acts of
Parliament clearly demarcates which minister is responsible for executing
which specific Act of parliament.

The President's Office is
supposed to gazette the customary statutory instruments listing ministerial
responsibilities for administering Zimbabwe's Acts of parliament when and if
new ministries are created.

However, the setting up of the
all-inclusive government almost five months ago, saw several new ministries
being created while others were split in two and others were combined
creating a crisis over which ministry presides over which
Act.

Parliamentary sources said delays in gazetting the
Ministerial Responsibilities for Acts of Parliament will lead to scenarios
where President Mugabe will have to intervene in determining which minister
executes which Act as and when the need arises.

"As it is
at the moment President Mugabe can decide that one minister administer an
Act that belongs to another ministry for political expediency and as long as
that is not cleared there will be problems in future," said the
source.

The sources said there was a lot of uncertainty over
which ministry has jurisdiction over which act of parliament. Already two
ministers have clashed over control of ministries leading to the
intervention of President Mugabe in the matter.

Media,
Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu and Information
Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa clashed at the inception of
the new government over the control of communication parastatals, forcing
President Mugabe to direct that the communication portfolio be controlled by
another ministry.

Zimbabwe has over 300 Acts of Parliament
which have to be administered by several ministries.Cabinet
secretary Misheck Sibanda was not reachable for comment.

Exposing Shortcomings of the Kariba Draft Constitution

Thursday, 02
July 2009 20:44This edited version of a report released by the
National Constitutional Assembly analyses the Kariba Draft Constitution, a
document negotiated in September 2007 and referenced in Article 6 of the
Global Political Agreement between Zimbabwe's three primary political
parties.

IN November 1999, a Constitutional Commission led by
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku unveiled a proposed Constitution for Zimbabwe.
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), along with partners in civil
society and opposition political parties, organised the NO Vote campaign,
which led to the defeat of the proposal in a February 2000
referendum.

The NCA and others alleged that the will of the
people, as expressed during months of public consultation, had not been
reflected in the Constitutional Commission proposal.

Specifically, it was argued that the proposal, if enacted, would produce an
unworkable system of government with an unchecked executive, a weak
parliament, and inadequate protections for fundamental rights and
freedoms.

In September 2007, representatives of the ruling
Zanu PF and the two formations of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change met in secret at Lake Kariba and drafted a new constitutional
proposal. This document, which is now known as the Kariba draft
constitution, was referenced in the Global Political Agreement signed on
September 15 2008. Article 6 of the agreement establishes a 19-month
constitution-making process.

Many have speculated that certain
politicians want to use the Article 6 process to impose the Kariba draft on
the people of Zimbabwe. In February 2009, President Robert Mugabe seemed to
confirm these suspicions by saying:

"There is already a
draft that the three parties agreed on. They call it the Kariba draft
because that is where they came up with the document. We shall all look at
it and when we are all satisfied, it shall be put to the people in a
referendum."

Process

The Kariba draft was
written during a clandestine meeting between the principal negotiators of
Zimbabwe's three primary political parties. For this reason, very little is
known about the process that went into the creation of the
draft.

It has been suggested that no more than six individuals
assumed primary responsibility for writing the draft. The content of the
Kariba draft indicates that the framers of this document used the
Constitutional Commission proposal as the basis of the draft, with portions
being rewritten or imported from Zimbabwe's current
constitution.

The process that led to the creation of the
Kariba draft is inappropriate for two broad reasons:

a..
First, and most importantly, Zimbabweans must be given the right to
determine the rules by which they will be governed. This view is reflected
in the Zimbabwe People's Charter, which calls for a "people-driven,
participatory" process of constitutional reform spearheaded by an inclusive
All Stakeholders Commission. The writing of the Kariba draft by a handful
of political elites without consulting the public is an undemocratic
usurpation of the right of Zimbabweans to write a constitution for
themselves. a.. Secondly, the Kariba draft should be rejected because
it is based on the Constitutional Commission proposal, a document that has
already been rejected by the people of Zimbabwe. Moreover, as described
below, the ways in which the Kariba draft differs from the Constitutional
Commission proposal generally reflect compromises of democratic principles
of governance and further divergence from the will of the
people.

Substance of the Kariba draft

As described
above, the content and structure of the Kariba draft are closely tied to the
content and structure of the Constitutional Commission proposal. Over half
of the articles in the two documents are identical, and most of the changes
that have been made are extremely minor. Therefore, nearly all of the
weaknesses that led to the rejection of the Constitutional Commission
proposal are replicated in the Kariba draft.

Despite the broad
similarity of the two documents, a number of major changes to the
Constitutional Commission proposal were made by the framers of the Kariba
draft. In many cases, these changes involve the replacement of a provision
of the Constitutional Commission proposal with one from the current
constitution.

In some places, changes have been made which clarify
or strengthen provisions in the Constitutional Commission
proposal.

For example, the Kariba draft adds Section 121, which
specifies the composition of the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders, a
matter which the Constitutional Commission proposal did not
address.

However, there are many places where changes have been
made which weaken the draft. Extremely worrying are many small changes that
appear to be insignificant but may open the door for political manipulation
of government structures. For example, the Kariba draft makes the removal of
a member of parliament automatic after he or she is absent from 21
consecutive sittings, whereas the Constitutional Commission proposal makes
removal contingent on a vote of the Senate or House of
Assembly.

This change appears inexplicable, but given
Zimbabwe's history of violence and intimidation in the political arena, it
is possible to imagine that the change was crafted to allow the expulsion of
opposition politicians after they have been arrested or forced into hiding.
Many seemingly minor changes reflected in the Kariba draft raise similar
questions about the intent of the drafters.

The following
analyses the provisions of the Kariba draft as they relate to major
constitutional issues.

Structure and powers of the
executive

Under the Kariba draft, all executive authority rests
in the president, who "takes precedence over all other persons in Zimbabwe,"
and his cabinet. Alternatively, the Constitutional Commission proposal
suggests that the president shares executive authority with a prime
minister. Although the prime minister's role under the Constitutional
Commission proposal is relatively weak, the complete absence of this office
in the Kariba draft removes a vital check on the power of the
president.

Under the current constitution, the president enjoys
expansive, unchecked powers that can be used for political advantage. These
powers are not diminished under the Kariba draft. The draft allows the
president to unilaterally declare a state of public emergency and suspend
human rights protections. Even if parliament fails to approve such a
declaration, the president may cause the state of emergency to remain in
effect for up to 21 days.

The Kariba draft also maintains
the president's ability to grant pardons or reprieves to those convicted of
criminal offences. It eliminates many of the checks on presidential power
that were included in the Constitutional Commission proposal. For example,
the Kariba draft removes the need to consult with another office or gain
Senate approval when carrying out many executive functions. Moreover, the
draft adds a section from the current constitution which limits the ability
of courts to inquire into the manner in which executive powers are
exercised.

In addition to these deficiencies, the Kariba draft
allows the president to unilaterally appoint many public officers and
provides for the structural dominance of the other branches of government by
the president. These problems are discussed below.

Presidential
appointments

Generally, the Kariba draft retains the current
constitution's framework for presidential appointments. Appointments are
most often made after "consultation" with some other individual or body. In
most cases, that person or body is also appointed by the
president.

Whereas the Constitutional Commission requires the
Senate to approve most presidential appointees, the Kariba draft contains
very few limits on the president's power to appoint individuals of his
choice. The draft also eliminates checks on the president's power to
appoint by eliminating the office of prime minister. For these reasons,
very few public institutions would operate independently under the Kariba
draft.

In addition to presidential appointments to the
legislature and judiciary (discussed below), under the Kariba draft, no
individual or body has the authority to block a president's appointment to
the following offices or bodies: vice-presidents; ministers; cabinet
members; diplomats, ambassadors and "principal representatives of Zimbabwe
abroad"; Judicial Service Commission; Attorney-General and Deputy
Attorney-General; chairperson of the Public Service Commission; permanent
secretaries; Commander of the Defence Forces and commanders of particular
services of the Defence Forces; Defence Forces Service Commission;
Commissioner-General of Police; Police Service Commission; Commissioner of
Prisons; Prison Service Commission; Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission; Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission; Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption Commission; Public Protector and Deputy Public Protector;
Auditor-General; Governor of the Reserve Bank; Provincial Governors;
Chiefs.

The legislature

Under the Kariba
draft, the legislature is dominated by the executive. Whereas the
Constitutional Commission proposal suggests a Senate comprised of 60 elected
members, the Kariba draft replicates the current structure of the Senate,
with its 17 presidential appointees.

This provides an almost
insurmountable senatorial majority for the president's party. The Kariba
draft, like the Constitutional Commission proposal, permits the president to
dissolve parliament at any time, allowing him to override proposed
legislation that he opposes and perhaps escape impeachment.

He
may also unilaterally extend a term of parliament during times of war.
Moreover, the draft makes it very difficult for parliament to pass a vote of
no confidence. In fact, the draft removes the subsection in the
Constitutional Commission proposal that specifies that if a president fails
to comply with the requirements of a vote of no confidence he must resign,
allowing a president to simply ignore such an action.

The
Kariba draft also departs from the Constitutional Commission proposal in a
number of significant ways that do not directly touch upon executive power.
For example, the draft envisions a National Assembly composed entirely of
members elected by a single constituency.

This eliminates the
Constitutional Commission proposal's establishment of 50 seats for members
elected under a system of proportional representation, a provision which may
have helped minority groups in Zimbabwe gain parliamentary
representation.

Additionally, the Kariba draft makes it easier
to alter some provisions of the constitution. Many of the departures from
the Constitutional commission proposal in the chapter on parliament seem
inexplicable, except that they may be evidence of efforts by politicians to
open the door for manipulation of the legislative system for political
gains.

The judiciary

The Kariba draft, like
the current constitution and the Constitutional Commission proposal, fails
to ensure the independence of the judiciary.

Whereas the
Constitutional Commission proposal requires Senate approval of the
president's judicial appointments, the Kariba draft only requires that the
president select an appointee from a list provided by the presidentially
appointed Judicial Service Commission or gain approval of his own choice
from that group.Moreover, the president closely controls the procedure
for removing judges from office.

The president may initiate an
inquiry into a particular judge and personally appoint a three-member
tribunal to consider his or her removal.

The Kariba draft in
many places adds to the provisions on the judiciary contained in the current
Constitution and the Constitutional Commission proposal. In some instances,
the changes give the president or a presidential appointee additional
control over the structure of the judiciary.

Elections

The Kariba draft, the current Constitution and the
Constitutional Commission proposal establish frameworks for elections, which
are very similar. Where the Kariba draft differs from the other two
documents, it is usually for the purpose of filling in procedural details
rather then making significant substantive changes.

What all
three constitutions have in common is the establishment of an electoral
commission that is insufficiently independent.

Each one gives the
president ultimate authority in selecting commission members. Whereas the
Constitutional Commission proposal requires approval of appointments by the
Senate, the current constitution and the Kariba draft only require
insignificant "consultation" with the presidentially-appointed Judicial
Service Commission and the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders, or in
some cases, appointment from a list provided by the former
group.

Rights and national objectives

The Kariba
draft maintains the structure and most of the content of the Constitutional
Commission proposal in regard to the protection of fundamental rights and
freedoms.

Therefore the weaknesses of that proposal are replicated
in the Kariba draft. Specifically, the Kariba draft fails to protect many
vital rights, such as the freedom of the media and the right of workers to
strike. Although the draft adds a section making some rights non-derogable,
this provision does not apply to internal limitations or limitations
authorised during a period of public emergency.

Moreover,
social and economic rights such as the right to housing, education and
health are dealt with in a "National Objectives" section that is merely
"directory in nature," meaning that compliance is not
mandatory.

The Kariba draft strengthens a few of the rights
contained in the Constitutional Commission proposal. For example, pregnant
women are added to the classes of persons protected from unfair
discrimination. However, most of these changes are relatively minor and just
as often the Kariba draft weakens rights protections by including additional
exceptions or limitations.

Of particular significance is
the Kariba draft's word-for-word incorporation of the sections in the
current constitution that deal with the right to property.

This
portion of the current constitution has been scarred by numerous amendments
and fails to protect anything except the state's unchecked ability to
acquire and distribute land.

The complete reproduction of this text
demonstrates that the Kariba draft is a hastily negotiated document that
reflects narrow political considerations rather than a rigorous analysis of
rights protections or consideration of the will of the people.

Local government and the devolution of powers

The Kariba draft
provides for the establishment of provincial councils and local
authorities.

The functions assigned to these bodies, though very
limited, are greater than those provided in the current constitution or the
Constitutional Commission proposal. However, these powers are not
guaranteed and can be taken away by the central government at any
time.

Provincial and local bodies may be manipulated by the central
government, which, through an Act of Parliament determines their
composition. Furthermore, provincial governors, who chair provincial
councils, are presidential appointees.

Size of
government

The Kariba draft opens the door for the
establishment of a bloated, inefficient government. Compared with the
Constitutional Commission proposal, all three branches of government are
potentially larger.

The Constitutional Commission proposal contains
a clause limiting to 20 the number of ministers that the president can
appoint.

This clause is dropped in the Kariba draft, allowing the
president to appoint as many ministers as he chooses and create a cabinet of
any size. Both the Senate and National Assembly have more members than are
provided for in the Constitutional Commission proposal.

The
Kariba draft provides more detail than the Constitutional Commission
proposal on the composition of the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court,
but unlike that proposal allows the president to appoint as many judges as
he likes to the High Court.

Conclusion

The Kariba
draft constitution is an undemocratic document in terms of both process and
content. The draft was written in secret, usurping the right of the people
of Zimbabwe to write a constitution for themselves.

If the draft
were enacted, it would establish a government that would be dominated by the
executive. parliament, the judiciary and numerous public offices and bodies
would be subject to political manipulation and control.

Many of the fundamental rights and freedoms to which Zimbabweans are
entitled would not be protected. For these reasons, the Kariba
draft should play no role in constitution making in Zimbabwe. The country's
political leaders should publicly reject the use of the Kariba draft as the
basis for constitutional reform and embrace people-driven solutions to
Zimbabwe's crisis of governance.

Journalists call for More Media Plurality, Diversity

Thursday, 02 July
2009 18:37ZIMBABWE'S inclusive government should make far-reaching
media reforms soon to inspire confidence in and outside the country,
analysts have said.

Media pressure groups have called for more
plurality and diversity in the media and an end to laws that impede the free
practice of journalism.Delays by the new administration to free the
airwaves and grant licences to new players undermine the democratic ideals
captured in the September 15 2008 Global Political Agreement that resulted
in the formation of the inclusive government between President Robert
Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.

"We want an
immediate repeal of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(Aippa)," Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president Mathew Takaona
said.

"Aippa should be replaced by a Freedom of Information Act
which makes information accessible to everyone. We also need to bring down
monopolies in the media because they are dangerous. They perpetuate
corruption, social ills, patronage and create false
realities."

Takaona said government had promised to take on
board recommendations made by media practitioners at the Kariba media
conference in April.

"Self-regulation of the media is also
imperative. The media cannot be regulated by the state which is an
interested party because there is a conflict of interest," said the ZUJ
president.

The government has remained adamant that statutory
regulation will be enforced.

George Charamba, permanent
secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity, is reportedly
drafting media regulations for the industry which will soon be tabled in
parliament.

These focus on freedom of information and media
practitioners, outlining procedures for the regulation of
journalists.

MDC-T legislator Settlement Chikwinya said he was
"disturbed" by the slow pace of the inclusive government in repealing or
amending repressive laws affecting the day-to-day life of
journalists.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe
Chapter has also criticised steps taken so far by the five-month old
inclusive government towards media reform.

The National
Governing Council of Misa said last week that the "failure by the inclusive
government to urgently allow more private newspapers and alternative radio
or television stations to operate in the country severely limits the
citizen's rights to access to information and diversity of
views".

Apart from Aippa, which has become synonymous with
media repression, media experts argue that a cocktail of laws continue to
curtail media freedom.

The country's supreme law guarantees
freedom of expression but there is no express guarantee of media freedom.
Given the key democratic function served by the media, a specific guarantee
of press freedom would be expected.

Constitutional law
expert Prof Geoff Feltoe cites a plethora of laws that inhibit press
freedom. The Civil Defamation law, according to Feltoe, does not draw a
"reasonable balance" between protection of reputation and freedom of the
press.

"When a paper publishes information believing on
reasonable grounds that it is true, it is still in danger of having to pay
large amounts of money in damages if the information turns out to be
inaccurate," he argues.

"We should adopt the position in South
Africa, where it is a defence to a defamation action that the paper took
reasonable steps to check the information it publishes in the public
interest."

This defence applies even if the information turns
out to be untrue, Feltoe said.

"The position for newspapers
would be eased if there was more ready access to information held by
government agencies," he said. "The highly restrictive official secrets
legislation needs to be completely overhauled. The access to information
provisions in Aippa are so qualified and hedged about that they do little to
open up access to government information. We need real freedom of
information legislation along the lines of legislation in South
Africa."

Citing the shortcomings of the Criminal Defamation
law, Feltoe further argues that the law can be used as a "weapon to deter
legitimate criticism" of people in high office.

Any sector
of the media can find itself a target of this offence. A few months ago the
editor and a reporter on the Chronicle newspaper were charged with this
offence for publishing an article alleging that senior police officers were
involved in a GMB maize scam. They were charged with making a false
statement prejudicial to state interests.

Journalists still
risk facing a one-year sentence for making statements about the president
that could be viewed as false or engendering feelings of hostility or cause
him to be ridiculed or held in contempt.

Media experts argue
that this offence may be appropriate to protect the dignity of a ceremonial
president but an executive president like Mugabe who is actively involved in
political activities should not be above criticism.

Last
week's utterances by top officials in the Ministry of Media, Information and
Publicity that the yet to be constituted Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC)
would merely be a replica of the now defunct Media and Information
Commission, signals the turbulent path that lies ahead for the media reform
agenda.

Challenging an interim High Court ruling protecting
four freelance journalists who challenged sections of the controversial
Aippa, Minister Webster Shamu and his permanent secretary George Charamba
filed court papers last week defending the law.

They argued
that the MIC would be reincarnated as a new constitutional commission. The
Tafataona Mahoso-led MIC was dissolved by Constitutional Amendment No 18 in
January last year.

"There was otherwise no change in the status
of the commission as a legal entity possessed with full corporate powers,"
Shamu averred in his court papers.

Indicating a void that
could result after the formation of the ZMC, Shamu said "there was nothing
in the Aippa amendment (No 18) that suggests that a new successor body was
created under the amendment, or that there was any intention by the
legislature to affect the rights and obligations created by or under or
otherwise acquired in terms of the principal Act.Consequently there exists a
situation at present where two commissions exist in parallel under separate
legislative provisions, with the constitutional commission still in limbo
because of the absence of a legislative and operational framework which is
to be provided under an Act of Parliament still to be
enacted."

The MDC-T however has lambasted this
notion.

"A donkey does not become a cow by simply being
renamed. These enemies of press freedom are either genuinely naïve or are
being mischievous by trying to impose the old MIC secretariat on the ZMC,"
said MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa. "The likes of Tafataona Mahoso and
other media hangmen who have left a legacy of five banned newspapers, bombed
radio and television stations must never be allowed to be part of the
board," he said.

Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma told a press
conference last month that former commissioners were still eligible to fill
posts arising in the ZMC.

Remarks by Charamba that he would
investigate the publication of a newsletter being run by Morgan Tsvangirai's
office could be a bid by the old guard to block reforms.

The growing suspicion between the prime minister and the permanent secretary
demonstrates the mistrust, political plotting and moves being made by
parties in the inclusive government ahead of an anticipated poll. In the
midst of this war of attrition, the fate of media freedom in this country
will be determined.

Zim Dollar not Coming Back yet -- Mangoma

Thursday, 02 July 2009
20:04THE Minister of Economic Planning and Development Elton Mangoma
said the local currency was not coming back on the market as the economic
environment was not conducive for it to be re-introduced.

Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the inaugural
Zimbabwe International Investment Conference scheduled for July 9 and 10,
Mangoma said the Zimbabwean dollar was dead.

"There is no argument
on that. The Zimbabwe dollar is not coming back. If there are such signals
it is important to take into consideration where and who said it," Mangoma
said.

""Remember we are politicians. Ask yourself was it said
at a rally? To achieve what?" he questioned.Against all that, the
position is it (Zimbabwe dollar) has been shelved and not coming back
anytime soon," Mangoma said.

Last week the media quoted
President Mugabe saying he wanted to re-introduce the local currency
soon."People in rural areas were forced to trade with their livestock
instead of money.

We can not have a country like that. We
are considering going back to our own currency soon," Mugabe
said.

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara is also on record
saying the local currency was not dead and people should continue to use
it.

"Discussion or debate around the Zimbabwe dollar is
work-in-progress. Such claims are ridiculous. It is a nonsensical and
unacceptable concept to even say the Zimbabwe dollar is dead or dead for a
year," Mutambara was quoted in May.

This week Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said there were no plans or discussion for the
"return on the local currency".

"If the local currency was to
be re-introduced today, economically we will go back to were we where last
year," Mangoma said. Meanwhile government has extended to July 31 the waiver
for the importation of basic commodities duty free.

Govt Withdraws Mining Indigenisation bill

Thursday, 02 July 2009
20:01GOVERNMENT has withdrawn the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill
which demanded foreign owned mines to cede 51% of their shareholding to
locals as it seeks to lure external investors.

Informed sources
yesterday said government had withdrawn the Bill which was scaring away
foreign investors in the mining sector and forced mining firms not to embark
on long term plans.

"The bill was withdrawn. With the current
programme to revive the economy, it could not have come at a better time," a
government official said yesterday.

The bill among other
investor unfriendly facets sought to transfer a majority stake to locals,
including giving the Zimbabwe government a free 25% stake.

President Robert Mugabe had thrown the economic future of stressed
Zimbabweans into greater uncertainty and confusion with a declaration that
the state intended nationalising all 500 of the country's
mines.

Mugabe at the time said the bill "would broaden
participation in the sector by indigenous players".

The
bill spooked mining firms and analysts warned it could backfire and hurt the
mine sector, now the country's leading foreign currency earner, worsening an
economic crisis that has devastated Zimbabwe's economy.

Foreign
firms that would have been affected include the world's second biggest
platinum producer, Impala Platinum, which has widespread operations in
Zimbabwe. Rio Tinto which has diamond interests and the world's top platinum
producer, Anglo Platinum, which is developing a mine in the country and
Metallon Gold owned by South African tycoon Mzi Khumalo were to be
affected.

Several mines in Zimbabwe have shut down in the past
year, suffocated by hyper-inflation, shortages of skills, power outages
foreign currency shortages and lack of investment.

Critics
had previously warned that if empowerment was not handled carefully, the
country could see a repeat of the "chaotic" land reforms.

Mining has become a pillar of the country's economy, following the collapse
of commercial farming, with gold alone generating a third of all export
revenue.

Aid is Good, but Investment is Better

Thursday, 02 July 2009
19:55AT least he tried. This is probably the best that can be said
about Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's trip to the West.

Sadly some of his colleagues, or perhaps rivals, in the coalition government
are trying to downplay the importance of that visit. To measure the success
or failure of the trip by the amount of money received will be completely
missing the point.

In any case the US$500 million financial support
pledged by the West, although falling far short of the required US$8
billion, is not a small amount considering that the projected total revenue
for the year is US$1 billion.

According to the recent
revelations by the Ministry of Finance total collections for the five months
to May this year were US$174 million, which makes half a billion a
fortune.

Whereas aid or some financial support is required to
jumpstart the economy, an improvement in the world's perception of Zimbabwe
is paramount. In fact, a good perception can be much more important than aid
because it enhances the country's ability to attract
investment.

To have top government leaders hosted by leaders in
influential countries in the West, after almost a decade of isolation,
should be seen as a first step in unlocking the co-operation of these
countries.

One hopes that during the meetings both sides had an
opportunity to spell out their expectations and what they would do to build
on the renewed relations.

For Western countries
re-engagement provides an opportunity to play a key role in the
reconstruction of the country.

While their concerns on
outstanding matters of the global political agreement are genuine and have
to be expeditiously resolved, withholding support to the country because of
these issues would have been tantamount to missing a good chance to
influence progress in the country's rehabilitation.

With the
pledges they gave during the PM's visit and promise of more support if the
country adopts more reforms, it would be unfair to say the West did not
respond positively to the call for re-engagement.

It is
imperative for leadership in the country to show commitment to fully
implementing its own agreement if it wants to be taken
seriously.

The deliberate delays in resolving those issues
which come on the back of the alleged lack of the rule of law; disrespect
for investment agreements; and supposed violation of property rights do not
give confidence to prospective financiers.

It is for this
reason that the West is demanding more reforms before more aid can be
availed. Even in banking, clients with a history of defaulting on their
loans and other untoward behaviour are subjected to tighter borrowing
conditions.

Whilst the debate on the merits of the trip to the
West was going on, there were two instances of rare positive development
this week. The first was the announcement of a US$950 million loan facility
from China and the second the successful hosting of an investor conference
by Imara.

What was intriguing about the Chinese loan was that
it was announced by the PM at a press conference in which he was giving
feedback on his trip to Europe, Scandinavia and the US.

It
is not clear whether or not the facility is a result of the Look East Policy
embarked upon by the government when relations with Europe and the US
soured.

If it is, then why would those who championed it have
missed an opportunity to claim its success, especially after the West
pledged a "paltry" US$500million? Or was it a shift in allegiance by the
wise men from the East?

Unlike the Europeans and Americans
who openly refuse to give assistance to countries led by perceived enemies,
the Chinese consistently maintain that they support the people without
trying to influence the politics of this country.

The
pledged loan of US$950 million, if it materialises, will further strengthen
Chinese involvement in the country given their appeal to both sides of the
political divide.

The second positive occurrence during the
week was the staging of an investor's conference which attracted several
investors from across the globe who wanted to hear the Zimbabwean
story.

Local companies had an opportunity to showcase their
businesses to prospective foreign investors, most of whom did not know what
to expect given the negative reportage in the media of their
countries.

Presentations by most companies were impressive with
the ones from Delta, Murray & Roberts and PG exceptional as they were
detailed and had carefully thought out strategies.

Many
companies expressed cautious optimism on the political and economic reforms
undertaken this year which they said had had a positive impact on their
business. Capacity utilisation for many improved from 5%-10% in January this
year to around 30%.

This is good for the country as government
revenue dramatically improved from US$4m in January to US$65m in May as
economic activity increased. This shows that promoting investment in the
country through supportive regulation; reducing taxes; and guaranteed
private property rights can turnaround the economy quicker than
aid.

That should not be too much to ask for. However, with
politicians even simple things can sometimes turn out to be difficult to
achieve.

Deadlock Over Mine Workers' Wages

Thursday, 02 July 2009 19:45
WAGE negotiations for the second quarter of the year between the Chamber of
Mines and the Associated Mine Workers' Union of Zimbabwe have broken down
and the two parties are now heading for arbitration.

The workers
union president Tinago Ruzive told Businessdigest that negotiations had hit
a brickwall after the Chamber proposed a minimum wage which was less than
that of the first quarter.

"Mineworkers are wallowing in poverty
and were earning only US$100 per month for the first quarter and we had put
forward a minimum wage of US$454 for the second quarter which is stipulated
as the Poverty Datum Line, but were ready to negotiate downwards recognising
the difficulties the industry is experiencing," Ruzive
said.

"But the Chamber proposed to reduce the minimum wage for
the second quarter from US$100 to US$80 citing inability to pay, but we
cannot accept such a paltry offer," said Ruzive.

Ruzive
said when the Chamber proposed to pay a minimum wage that would cater for
basic requirements, they had calculated a figure of US$174. He said the
Chamber had said they could not pay that figure resulting in the
deadlock.

"We have registered our first, second and third
deadlock and are now heading for the process of conciliation at the Ministry
of Labour. If we fail to agree, then we will go for arbitration," he
said.

Ruzive said failure to reach an agreement on wages could
have a devastating impact on the sector which is the country's largest
foreign currency earner and could descend into chaos as their membership is
becoming increasingly frustrated.

"I hope this issue is
resolved quickly because the workers are becoming impatient. I will not be
able to keep the lid on the boiling pot much longer," he
warned.

Resolve Outstanding GPA Issues - ZNCC

Thursday, 02 July 2009
19:41THE Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) says the
government should urgently resolve outstanding issues contained in the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) so that they focus on economic
development.

ZNCC president, Obert Sibanda told delegates attending
the chamber's annual general meeting in Bulawayo last week that the three
principals to the GPA, Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF, Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC-T
and Arthur Mutambara of MDC-M should put their house in order for the
benefit of the country.

"Government should move with speed to
address these outstanding issues as they affect business and indeed the
nation negatively," said Sibanda.

ZNCC is the country's second
largest business organisation after the Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries.The chamber has pledged to join the inclusive government in
its efforts to spruce up Zimbabwe's battered image and bring back critical
investor confidence.

Issues that government of national
unity has been failing to agree on include, re-introduction of the local
currency, tariffs, drafting of the constitution, indigenisation law, tax
charges and payment of civil servants salaries.

"We advise
the parties to finalise the outstanding issues in the GPA and resolve them
amicably so that the country can focus on economic development, which is
desperately needed," he said.

This year's congress was held
under the theme "Smart Stakeholder Partnerships for Economic
Revival".The purpose of the GPA is to ensure that the country's
economy, whose Gross Domestic Product has declined by 60% over the past
decade, starts recovering.The GPA's major objective is to ensure
that the country's political environment becomes stable paving the way for
all major sectors of the economy - mining, agriculture, manufacturing and
exports - to start performing.The other objectives of the GPA are
to ensure that the local currency becomes stable, arrest high inflation,
create employment, improve education and health standards and to ensure that
there is reliable and affordable electricity and clean water
supplies.However, the fragile unity government has been dogged by
infighting and backbiting which is slowing the country's economic
revival.The latest infighting in the new government was the boycotting
of a Cabinet meeting by MDC legislators on the pretext that Mugabe had
unilaterally shifted the meeting from the mandated day of Tuesday to
Monday.The MDC argues the decision to move the Cabinet meeting day was
Mugabe's plan to deny Tsvangirai recognition as the chair of Cabinet when
the president was away.Mugabe is away in Libya attending an
African Union summit of heads of states."Government should waive
unrealistic taxes and import duties to aid local industries that are failing
to reclaim the market share from cheap foreign imports," Sibanda
said.He said although local companies needed to increase their
capacity utilisation, their efforts were being hampered by the unrealistic
cost of electricity, rentals, telephones, water and other
utilities."Our companies need to increase capacity utilisation and we
have been trying to do that in the last months but our efforts are being
held back by unrealistic taxes and duties, which are not in line with the
regional average," Sibanda said.Locally produced goods are
becoming more expensive, making them uncompetitive on the market because the
local industries would be trying to offset high production costs, duty
regime and tax charges.

LonZim Takes to the Skies

Thursday, 02 July 2009 19:38LONZIM
PLC says it will commence operations for a Fly540 airline in Zimbabwe to
service domestic and regional markets. The company said its flights are
scheduled to start from September.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE)
junior announced that FLY540 is being rolled out across Africa with local
partners in each country to service the domestic and regional African
markets. The company did not name its local partner in Zimbabwe in the
venture.

Fly540 is a Lonrho PLC-owned airline on lease to
LonZim.

Fly540 is set to offer Air Zimbabwe competition for
market share in a move that could see other airlines setting up shop in the
country.

Pioneer Airlines (PA), a planned airline project by
transport and logistics group Pioneer Africa Corporation, suffered a still
birth after government did not grant the group an operating licence a few
years ago. Mid Airlines also failed to take off in Zimbabwe in
2003.

Until recently, government had been very protective of
the aviation sector and happy to see Air Zimbabwe have a larger share of the
market unfettered.

Meanwhile LonZim stands accused by AMB
Ireland, a 22,12% shareholder in the company of gross corporate governance
shortfalls because of its business reliance on Lonrho.

Miffed by apparent corporate governance concerns and poor investments at
LonZim, AMB called for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to remove the
Alternative Investments Market listed company's four directors off the board
but the requisition to convene an EGM has been ignored.

Should
LonZim convene the meeting, AMB Ireland will seek to remove four directors
from the board and reconstitute the board to pave way for the sale of the
company's "non profitable and start-up" investments.

In April,
AMB Ireland sought an EGM through the registered owner of its LonZim shares,
Pershing International Nominees Limited but LonZim is seemingly ignoring the
demands.

LonZim said then that the "EGM would most likely be
held in June" but no date has been set yet.

"AMB Ireland
does not believe it is right and proper for the board to ignore a duly
served shareholder requisition in this way," the company said.

Damille Partners IV, a 6,46% shareholder in LonZim, has also thrown its
support behind AMB Ireland and will support all its
resolutions.

AMB capital alleges there is a blatant conflict of
interest on the part of LonZim directors.

The financial
services firm says of the £18,96 million capital that LonZim deployed in
investments, £9,78 million, approximately 51,6% of the total capital, has
been invested in related party transactions or transactions involving Lonrho
and or its employees, "either immediately or in the
future."

The company cited Lonzim's acquisition of Lonrho
shares in a private placement without shareholder approval as another case
in point.

The AIM company also acquired Blueberry International
Services Limited from Lonrho and the lease by LonZim to Fly 540 Uganda, a
Lonrho subsidiary, of the two aircraft purchased by LonZim in October
2008.

LonZim also bought a 79% shareholding in Aldeamento
Turistico de Macuti, SARL (ATdM), the holder of a Beira property on which a
hotel will be developed, which will be "operated and managed by an entity
owned by Lonrho plc" as announced on 20 February 2008.

Govt should not lead national Healing

Thursday, 02 July 2009
19:29RECENTLY, we have heard and read interesting things about
national healing. A substantial amount of information, mostly from political
figures, has been disseminated about this special process in the
media.

Ministers John Nkomo (Zanu PF), Sekai Holland (MDC-T) and
Gibson Sibanda of MDC), have been appointed to lead this task. Quite
interestingly, they are state ministers, not Cabinet members, which means
their importance is not quite up there with the rest.

The three
parties have, as they have done with many national issues, taken it upon
themselves to decide the national healing course.

The
pronouncements made recently by the three parties give the impression that
Zimbabweans will one day wake up and find themselves healed from some
obscure ailment that seems to be taboo to pronounce.

Healing, I
suppose, in the medical and even biblical sense, generally presupposes an
injury or ailment of some sort, either to the physical being of a life, or
to the soul. The healer (who is qualified either by trust or practice) then
prescribes certain measures or implements them on the patient, who responds
by reverting to a state or condition closest to his condition prior to the
ailment.

Such healing often begins at diagnosis level, where
the healer identifies or approximates the problem bedevilling the patient.
After this, the healer prescribes a medicine or a concoction of medicines
that might help overcome the victim's problem. When the patient takes these
medicines, they have in earnest begun the process of treatment during which
they begin to heal or recover from their disease.

In
Zimbabwe's case, what is the diagnosis? And what is the treatment? These are
questions that our leaders in the inclusive government seem not to have
pondered.

The healing our politicians describe is some
miraculous "stand up and walk" routine that we have only witnessed at
religious crusades or, at least, read from the Holy Bible.

The overwhelming desire from our leadership is that we be healed quickly
before a full diagnosis of the problem has been made. Instead of giving us
relief, this attitude only inclines us towards suspicion.

The
world knows that Zimbabweans have suffered untold trauma on different fronts
- political, social and economic. We have suffered so much that we are even
afraid to say it is not a headache we have but a stomach ache. We have
fallen so ill with docility that we cannot stand up against anything forced
down our throats by our politicians-cum-medical
practitioners.

For over 10 years, more than half of
Zimbabwe's population has lived and died like paupers because of the
unprecedented economic decline that this country has become synonymous with.
Yet, there was a government that presided over this decline, stubbornly
declaring Zimbabwe could go it alone while blaming economic sanctions for
its failures.

The country had become so impotent that the only
thing it could produce was a worthless assortment of bank
notes.

Since 2000, Zimbabweans have suffered injuries and
deaths during election time and their will has not been allowed to carry the
day, because, President Mugabe once told us, "the bullet is mightier than
the ballot".

The Matabeleland atrocities of the 1980s are still
fresh in the minds of many, more than two decades after they were committed.
Parents still talk about what their sons and daughters could have grown up
to become had they not been so viciously killed during the days of
Gukurahundi.

Recently, in 2005 thousands of families were
displaced under Operation Murambatsvina and many are yet to find their feet
since then. Some lives were lost too during this unfortunate
exercise.

But most recently, in June 2008, scores of people
were maimed, killed, abducted or vilified for political reasons. Many are
yet to be found while some remain incarcerated in various detention centres
under merciless conditions.

At least four newspapers were
shut down under repressive laws during that time, while many journalists
were harassed for seeking and writing the truth. The country remains at the
mercy of a very boring and partisan broadcaster while applicants are denied
licences to open up new stations.

In all these cases, the
guilty party is the state and its various apparatus. It is the state that
presided over the killings in Matabeleland, the destruction of homes under
Murambatsvina and the closure of newspapers daring to oppose its views and
policies.

It is the same government, now reincarnated as some
"inclusive" form that continues to muzzle the media and pretend it is
willing to give us many, many choices in the not so foreseeable
future.

In short the illness has been inflicted by our
politicians.

Yet, ironically, it is the state that tells us we
need healing. As if that is not enough, the same creature presides over that
healing process. Has commonsense become not so common these days? How can
the perpetrator of an offence claim to lead its investigation without
partiality?

It should not be government's responsibility to
make noise about national healing.

Likewise, it should not
be the responsibility of politicians in the three ruling parties to claim
that they have begun the process of national healing.

If
this national healing is to be a genuine exercise, Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC
(in that order of extremity) should confess to their wrongdoings and ask the
people how they think they need to be compensated for the harm done to
them.

Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara should say
"we are sorry" to Zimbabwe and not appoint supposed ministers to "lead" some
obscure self-preserving purpose.

Zanu PF and the two MDC
formations need to admit their complicity in the loss of lives in elections
since 2000. The MDC might claim it was more the victim than the perpetrator,
but for letting its supporters risk, and indeed, lose their lives in the
party's name and cause, the MDC is guilty as charged.

For
convincing supporters to don its regalia and campaign for it even under the
most dangerous of conditions is culpability in its furthest
extremity.

Zanu PF and MDC must each admit to their
contributions to the suffering of the people.

Zanu PF must
admit and apologise for the thousands of lives lost under its rule, at the
hands of its apparatus - in Matabeleland, in June 2008 and in any other
elections.

In fact, Zanu PF has a lot to apologise for. This is
not to absolve the MDC, which was also often on the wrong side of arson and
murder accusations. The same party has also led its supporters to believe
that Zanu PF was so bad that the MDC could never work with it. Now that the
bosses of the party are having coffee together, what happens to ordinary
villagers who had barricaded each other's paths with thorn
branches?

A book of apologies cataloguing the numbers of
victims, their locations and possible compensation must be opened by an
impartial body such as the church, whose congregations span the political
divide.

After apologising, these parties must then take
corrective measures. The traumatised must be rehabilitated into society and
taught to again trust the government, the police and the army. The military
should reconstruct where they have destroyed.

They should help
locate and excavate bodies buried in some secret graves and hand them over
to their families for proper interment. Hopefully, these souls will then
rest in peace.

Delinquency Condemns 'rebranding' to Failure

Thursday, 02 July 2009
18:04OUR thanks to Morgan Tsvangirai for firmly putting the kibosh on
President Mugabe's off the wall scheme to revive the Zim dollar. With the
exception of a coterie around the president, nobody wants to see a return of
that painful symbol of national decline.

"For economic reasons,
there is no way you can resort to the Zimbabwean dollar in a situation of
low production," Tsvangirai told a news conference in Johannesburg. "You
have to increase your productivity levels from the current 10% to about
50-60%, otherwise you slide back to... inflation. "It is impracticable to
talk about even resorting to a currency which is worthless at this
stage."

A day earlier Mugabe had been posing as a friend of the
poor who had no access to hard currency. But it was of course his ruinous
policies that ensured the poor stayed poor."Yes, prices may have
gone down but the people should have the money," the Herald quoted Mugabe as
saying. "If they don't have the money, how will they buy the goods? We can't
run a country like that. We are considering changing that and reverting to
our own currency."Just when everybody thought they had escaped the
nightmare of inflation and state controls!

Mugabe's address to
the National Consultative Assembly illustrated just how difficult it will be
to convince Western donors that he is a changed man. His speech was redolent
in the sort of populist demagoguery that has so damaged the economy and
isolated Zimbabwe over the years."Imperialists can never be friends of
those countries and people that desire freedom," he told his audience with
reference to Tsvangirai's recent trip. "I fought for freedom. Only a dead
imperialist is a good one (sic). Colonisers can never be friends so we turn
our backs on them and face the East."It will be interesting to see
in that connection how much Emmerson Mnangagwa's fishing expedition trawls
in. The government media is still keeping his visit a secret.As
for the president's war record, we advise those who wish to learn more to
consult Edgar Tekere's book. It provides a fascinating insight.

Given his excellent command of English it was surprising to see Mugabe
getting his aphorisms mixed up. "The only good imperialist is a dead
imperialist," is the expression he was probably looking for. But who, apart
from a tiny recidivist gang around the president, goes around talking about
"imperialists" any more? As for poor Irene Khan, did she really deserve to
undergo a sex change?Mugabe described her as a "little fellow".
But he then corrected himself saying: "I don't know where this little woman
came from - always shouting. Was she bewitched? And in our country anyone
can come and talk rubbish."Is this the language of a reformed
leader? Does this sound like somebody seeking engagement with the
international community and who understands what needs to be done to improve
human rights? And, in this context, why does he think white farmers are not
also Zimbabweans?"The Zimbabwean land is for Zimbabweans," he told the
central committee. "Others can only be recipients of it if we, Zimbabweans,
say so."What sort of country is it where the head of state targets
citizens from a specific ethnic background for dispossession; who unleashes
his followers against productive farmers and then expects the world to
reward him with investment and aid?We hope at least Tsvangirai got
the message during his tour that expropriation of somebody's life's work on
the grounds of race is simply not acceptable in today's world.

Tsvangirai has foolishly been characterising farm invasions as a storm in a
teacup. They are in fact emblematic of Zimbabwe's lawlessness.And
Arthur Mutambara was quoted on SW Radio Africa as saying of his fact-finding
visit to Mashonaland West where violent farm invasions have taken place that
he wouldn't be doing anything about it. He told the farm invaders on Mt
Carmel Farm, the property of Mike Campbell in Chegutu, they had to
leave.He said they were giving their sponsor, Nathan Shamuyarira, a
bad name.They left for one hour, then came back.
Mutambara said he would take no action on the issue, claiming it was
sufficient that he could say: "I saw it for myself'."But Arthur,
this is delinquency writ large. If you saw it and then pledge to do nothing
about it your national rebranding mission will fall at the first hurdle. And
it deserves to. Look at the wave of scepticism swirling around Tsvangirai
because he took the same evasive line, pandering to the hardliners in Zanu
PF.At least the Campbells' story will be told around the world
following the award made to the documentary film account of the ordeal the
Campbells have been through. Described as "intimate" and "moving", it was
unanimously judged the winner of the Sterling World Award at the
"Silverdocs" International Documentary Film Festival in Washington.
The judges said the film "elevates a resonant story to a global stage". They
particularly liked the solidarity shown by the farm workers with their
employers.The criminal brutality of the events at Mt Carmel Farm
exposes the real face of "land reform" which Tsvangirai failed to get past
world leaders recently when he spoke about isolated incidents!

We were amused by Patrick Chinamasa's claims that his colleagues in the
inclusive government now see things in "a different light"."They were
previously academic and now see things in a different light," he said at the
Chinhoyi Press Club. "Our colleagues now see reality as we saw it before the
inclusive government."Not difficult to imagine who this was aimed at.
But as for current realities, it is surely Chinamasa's party that has woken
up to the fact that it has lost public confidence and cannot survive by
means of brute force alone. It is Zanu PF that realises nobody buys its
silly propaganda about external threats any more. Zimbabweans want to be
friends of the West, not victims of the new colonisers from the
East.Zimbabwe would emerge as "a beacon of success", Chinamasa
suggested. But he didn't say what it was emerging from and who put it there
in the first place!

Nothing more clearly illustrates the need
for open media than the Herald's front-page story on Tuesday about the
MDC-T's boycott of this week's cabinet meeting.The Herald waxed
indignant about the "highly disrespectful" move and the "narrow agendas of
individual political parties".Only when we got to paragraph 11 were we
told of the reason for the boycott. The meeting had been moved to Monday to
prevent deputy prime minister Thokozani Khupe from standing in for President
Mugabe, who would be in Libya on Tuesday, and Morgan Tsvangirai who was
still in Johannesburg and had sent his apologies. He and Vice-President
Joyce Mujuru arrived home later on Monday. It was a snub and no amount of
huffing and puffing by the Herald could change that.The boycott
was an appropriate response.Cabinet usually meets on a Tuesday. The
MDC-T understandably saw the change in arrangements as a move designed to
prevent their most senior members from chairing the meeting. That's exactly
what it was about and usefully illustrated Mugabe's insincerity on the issue
of the inclusive government. Could he not let go for a single day?
But this was also a lesson for Tsvangirai. Should he really travel the world
singing praise for Mugabe when the president undermines him at every
turn?

We warned recently that the state's propaganda machine
was gearing up to declare the Zimbabwe Media Commission a reincarnation of
the sinister MIC. Now we have confirmation of this attempted confidence
trick with Media minister Webster Shamu declaring in court papers that the
amendment to Aippa last year did not alter the MIC's powers but simply
changed the regulatory body's name to the Zimbabwe Media
Commission.It will be interesting to see how the court responds to
this legerdemain. The minister acknowledged that the MIC ceased to exist on
January 11 last year when the amendments to Aippa came into effect.
"However, that event did not mean that a new commission called the Zimbabwe
Media Commission then became a successor body to the MIC," the minister said
in his affidavit opposing the application brought by four freelance
journalists seeking to cover the Comesa summit, and upheld by Justice Bharat
Patel.He said the effect was the change of name from MIC to Zimbabwe
Media Commission."There was otherwise no change in the status of
the commission as a legal entity possessed with full corporate powers," the
minister declared in his affidavit. "The legal institutional and operational
framework of the commission remained as it was in terms of its definition as
set out in Section 2 (1) of the principal Act (Aippa)."Board
members appointed to the MIC already had running contracts, Shamu pointed
out. "As such they continued to be members of the renamed
commission."There seems to be some wriggling here on the legal
hook. The Media ministry acknowledged in March that the MIC ceased to have
legal effect with the promulgation of amendments to Aippa. But now it claims
the MIC is effectively still operational.Shamu said there had been
a misunderstanding over the word "accredit".There was a distinction,
he said, between journalists applying for a 12-month accreditation enabling
them to practise in Zimbabwe, and the sort of accreditation that enables
journalists to cover workshops and conferences.If that is the
case, why does Tafataona Mahoso say he is only carrying out "routine"
business at the MIC? If it is merely a matter of a name change why has that
prevented him from registering newspapers?

There is much
misinformation about what both the GPA and the Kariba draft contain, Trudy
Stevenson has pointed out. For clarification, the GPA states:
"Article VI Constitution:"Acknowledging the draft constitution that
the parties signed and agreed to in Kariba on 30th of September 2007,
annexed hereto as Annexure "B"; Determined to create conditions for our
people to write a constitution for themselves, and mindful of the need that
the new constitution deepens our democratic values and principles and the
protection of the equality of allcitizens, particularly the
enhancement of full citizenship and equality of women;"6.1 The
parties hereby agree .to table (their) draft constitution to a 2nd
All-Stakeholders Conference; that the draft constitution recommended by the
Select Committee shall be submitted to a referendum.."There is no
indication whatsoever in the GPA, Trudy points out, that the "Kariba draft"
will be used either as the reference point for the writing of the new
national constitution, or as the document to be submitted to the referendum.
It has merely been acknowledged as a document drawn up and signed by the
three parties in the then negotiations as part of the package they would put
on the table to be agreed upon or differed with, but as a possible starting
point."It must be pointed out that the Kariba draft was drawn up and
signed in September 2007, six months before the March 2008 election, on the
understanding that all the three parties, in particular Zanu PF, were
genuinely desirous of change and of a truly free and fair election in terms
of Sadc standards," Trudy says."Events, in particular events
between 27 March and 29 June 2008, showed that this was far from the case,
as Zanu PF first delayed the results of the first round. despite (the)
public outcry, and secondly because the nature and extent of violence in the
'run-off' period March-June were such that there is no possibility of any
conclusion other than that the violence was deliberate, planned and intended
to ensure that the incumbent remained in power despite the wishes of the
majority."

Muckraker is having difficulty following the Herald's
maths on the status of the country's dams. On Monday, June 22 it said that
Harare's major dams, Lakes Chivero, Manyame and Harava, now hold an average
of about 90% of their capacity. It then went on to say Lake Chivero is 100%
full, Manyame 98,8% and Harava 100%.So that's an average of 90%?
Glad these guys are no longer running the economy!

Eric Bloch: SMEs Fuel Economic Growth

Thursday, 02 July 2009
17:52ALMOST every economy that has achieved major growth has, as an
element of that growth, had a concentrated drive to establish small and
micro enterprises (SMEs), inclusive of many coming into being as informal
sector operations, but progressively facilitated and motivated to formalise
their operations.

Prime examples of economies which have used
SME development as a catalyst for economic development include India, China,
South Korea and Malaysia, but there are many others who have done
likewise.

In virtually all instances, vast numbers of the
populations were without gainful formal sector employment, and subject to
pronounced poverty.

The respective governments sought to address
those critical circumstances by encouraging and facilitating the creation of
home industries and other small-scale operations, ranging from production of
basic items of clothing and footwear to carpentry and associated production
of small furniture items, from food production to manufacture of pottery,
from the provision of services such as plumbing and electrical repairs to
hairdressing, and from vending to engaging in transportation and cartage
operations (be it horse, donkey or cattle driven, or usage of
bicycles).

In so doing, not only were the governments enabling
large sectors of their populations access to incomes, with progressive
enhancement of standards of living and reduction of poverty, but also
fuelling considerable downstream economic activity and, in many instances,
some creation of employment and - as the enterprises developed and grew -
direct and indirect fiscal inflows.

However, in pursuit of the
SME development strategy, the governments also recognised the desirability
of a progressive transition of the enterprises from the informal
sector.

This was necessary if the ventures were to grow and expand,
have access to capital for that expansion and growth, were to be compliant
with law, and were to be substantive fiscal contributors.

Therefore, the governments strove to minimise the bureaucracy and the fiscal
hindrances to formal sector entry. Concurrently they intensively focused
upon relaxation of laws that were obstacles to informal sector operations
save to such extent as necessary for national security, community health,
and like considerations.

They also tried to ease the
establishment and operation of SMEs by establishing appropriate cluster
areas for the location of the ventures, at low cost, to facilitate access to
capital. Of major importance to their vigorous efforts to encourage and
enable informal sector economic activity, they ensured minimum regulation
and control.

They did likewise, to a considerable extent, to
motivate and facilitate movement from the informal to the formal sector,
concurrently with the creation and provision of significant incentives for
such operational transformation.

In particular, they recognised
that one of the biggest factors which motivated informal instead of formal
sector operations was that operators sought to avoid the incidence of
taxation and other imposts and, to counter that consideration, minimised
taxation and like charges on small enterprises, concurrently with the
provision of compensatory incentives. Those incentives were of a nature and
extent as would induce SME operatives to be willing to be subject to formal
sector constraints, as benefits would be perceived to outweigh
disadvantages.

Zimbabwe is currently striving to reverse the
massive economic decline that has been the principal characteristic of the
last decade, and in the last few months (mainly after the establishment of
the "inclusive" government), has made some significant initial progress in
doing so.

Foremost in the achievements is the elimination of the
most pronounced hyperinflation ever sustained by any country, with the first
five months of 2009 each experiencing deflation in contrast to gargantuan
month-on-month inflation throughout most of 2008.

Government
has also succeeded in sourcing some considerable international funding
(presently approximately US$955 million, although more than eight times that
amount is required).

In addition, it has begun to successfully
motivate foreign investor interest, although much of that interest has yet
to be converted from interest to intent. All indications are that the
economy is at last, very belatedly, set upon a path of recovery.
Nevertheless, the economic upturn is inevitably very slow and it will take
many years for complete recovery to be achieved.

Despite
the first stages of economic recovery progress, the economy is still greatly
debilitated, with intense poverty and suffering being norm for a
considerable majority of the population. The Poverty Datum Line for a family
of six was assessed in May 2009 at approximately US$427 per month, as
compared to US$82 in South Africa.

Almost 90% of the population
is believed to be struggling to survive, let alone make ends meet, to levels
very markedly below the PDL, whilst more than half the population barely
exists at below the Food Datum Line. As a result, extreme poverty, hardship
and suffering are the order of the day, with many dying of malnutrition or
of ill health.

It is critically important, therefore, that
Zimbabwe very urgently takes a leaf out of the book of those nations which
have successfully enabled economic growth and wellbeing for the majority of
their populations by rapid and intensive enablement of an exponential
development and growth of its informal sector, and of progressive transition
from the informal to the formal sector.

It has long talked of
doing so, but action is now needed, and not talk. As a matter of urgency, in
order not to "reinvent the wheel", Zimbabwe needs to study the policies and
strategies which have so successfully achieved large-scale SME development
in other countries, and to obtain requisite guidance and advice from
experienced experts within the international community.

Undoubtedly, those policies and strategies will required adaptation and
modification to fit Zimbabwean circumstances, but they will be effective
guidelines to achieve that which is so very necessary for Zimbabwean
circumstances, and to bring about economic vitality. The study must not be
limited solely to informal sector economic development, but also to the
motivation and enablement of progressive enterprise movement from the
informal to the formal sector.

Although only one example of
the pro-active measures that could be pursued, it is very notable that, with
effect from last Wednesday, South Africa is using its taxation legislation
as one way of stimulating SME development. With the intention to enable
small (and medium-sized) business ventures to obtain capital required to
fund establishment or growth, the South Africa Income Tax Act now provides
for a liberal tax incentive to those who invest in venture capital companies
that engage in the provision of funding to small business
enterprises.

That tax incentive comprises tax deductibility of the
entirety of amounts invested in venture capital companies that provide SME
funding.

In the case of individuals, the deduction allowed is
ZAR750 000 in any one year, subject to an aggregate maximum of such
deductions over the years of ZAR2, 25 million, whilst listed companies and
their 70% or more controlled subsidiaries are accorded deductibility of the
entirety of investment in approved venture capital companies.

The legislation prescribes that the venture capital companies must be
engaged in investment in the small business sector to an extent of at least
90% of its total investment capital. Such an incentivisation strategy may,
or may not, be apposite to Zimbabwe, but it is indicative of the innovative
thinking that could vigorously stimulate SME development.

Yet another could be significant tax relief in the first years of operations
of the SMEs, including pronounced leniency on the imposition of indirect
taxes impacting upon SMEs in general, and those within the informal sector
in particular (instead of the heavy-handed, oppressive indirect tax
enforcement recently resorted to by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Zimra,
in raids on informal sector traders).

Encouraging formal
and informal sector SME development, followed by the progressive transfer of
those in the informal sector to the formal sector, needs to be a high
priority in government's drive to re-establish a healthy, virile Zimbabwean
economy.

Candid Comment: Constitution-making Process Illegitimate

Thursday, 02
July 2009 20:35THE legitimacy and credibility of the controversial
constitutional process further waned this week after clashes between
parliament administrators and the select parliamentary committee
spearheading the task.

The situation was worsened by chaos which
characterised the committee's restricted outreach programme.
Leaders of the committee are now stumbling and stammering in a bid to defend
the increasingly unpopular process.

Problems bedevilling the
process are varied and many. For a start, it is now clear the process itself
is flawed.There are also disputes about methodology, budgets, number
of delegates to the stakeholders conference, the role of parliament
administration, mandate of the select committee and interface between
parliament, political parties and the public.

The select
parliamentary committee is digging in, while rejecting calls for an open,
participatory and democratic process. In essence the committee believes that
the 25 MPs in charge of the process are the only ones qualified to write a
new constitution.

Other political parties except Zanu PF and
the combined MDC, civil society, interest groups, professional
organisations, students, churches, women and key stakeholders have not been
fully consulted.A stakeholders' conference is being organised for July
9-12 in a bid to impose the committee's dubious findings.

The committee wants to have us believe that it consulted people during its
fleeting tour around the country. But we now know that the tour was a
disaster in many respects because some of the meetings were either chaotic
or just poorly attended. This is contained in the committee's own report
after the visits to Harare and Matabeleland North provinces. Imagine in
Harare some of the meetings were attended by as few as 10 people, while
others were cancelled due to non-attendance!

In
Matabeleland North there were concerns about why politicians were leading
the process. People wanted other stakeholders to be involved. This is what
we have been saying all along. In fact, according to the committee's report
itself, "there were also concerns whether the consultative process and
referendum would be democratic (or not)."

This is the crux of
the matter. The committee is trying to square a circle by hoping to come up
with a democratic and legitimate constitutional draft out of an undemocratic
and illegitimate process. The process is not legitimate in the view of the
public because it is dominated by self-interested politicians who are
pursuing power politics and self-preservation.

The process
and referendum cannot be said to be democratic when they are firmly under
the control of parties which signed an agreement to impose a flawed
constitutional document, the Kariba draft. Whatever the MDC says, it is
clear the Global Political Agreement makes the Kariba draft the reference
point. The draft "acknowledged" by the agreement takes precedence over other
drafts and submissions.

The MDC is now trying to wriggle out of
its agreement with Zanu PF simply because it can now see the Kariba draft is
shoddy and unpopular, a move which is both opportunistic and
self-serving.

Zanu PF is clinging to the Kariba draft in terms
of the agreement, but is also driven by self-interest. If the Kariba draft
is adopted Zanu PF benefits because it leaves President Robert Mugabe's
powers intact. If Kariba is rejected, we go back to the current defective
Lancaster House constitution which Mugabe loves even more. It's a win-win
for Zanu PF, unwittingly promoted by the MDC. Once again, it's clear we are
likely to remain stuck with Lancaster House, courtesy of the MDC. In 2000
that was the case and now it's likely to be the same.

This
is why attempts by MDC co-chair of the committee Douglas Mwonzora to say
that if this process fails people must blame the NCA and civil society are
quite strange. If it fails, we will blame Zanu PF and the MDC for trying to
impose a flawed document on the nation. It's clear where the problem lies:
the bid by politicians to clumsily impose a rigidly-controlled process and
its outcome on the people via a dictatorial framework. The problem is not
the people, but those trying to manipulate the people.

How can
a 25-member committee of MPs from three parties bound by a self-serving,
defective political agreement negotiated behind closed doors and in dark
rooms write a constitution for a whole country? By their own admission, the
political agreement is transitional and flawed. Why should that be a basis
and only framework for writing a constitution? Why are these MPs and their
parties so afraid of an open, participatory and democratic
process?

What have they got to hide? It's an open secret that
they want to impose Kariba, never mind the MDC's exaggerated protestations,
through a dubious process. If indeed they don't want to smuggle that draft
through the political door, why are they refusing to have an open
process?

From what has been going on, it is becoming
increasingly evident that the limited consultations done through a whirlwind
tour were a smokescreen. The reality is that the process is a sham. Even if
Zanu PF and the MDC eventually succeed in imposing a new constitution and
their political will, the outcome will suffer from a paucity of legitimacy
and credibility.

Mwonzora's address to the Press Club in Harare
this week was instructive. It was clear from his remarks that the
parliamentary committee's agenda is untenable. It now appears that there
could well be a sinister political agenda behind this charade.

Comment: Anti-reformists Bare Their True Colours

Thursday, 02 July 2009
20:32THE anti-reform proponents in the inclusive government are now
coming out of the woodwork and seem not to be embarrassed at all to flaunt
their reactionary credentials.

Right at the formation of the
inclusive government three months ago we expressed worry that elements
within Zanu PF would conspire to either sabotage or frustrate the reform
process. We were right.

Nothing exemplifies the machinations of
this lobby more vividly than attempts by Media, Information and Publicity
Minister Webster Shamu to legitimise the now defunct Media and Information
Commission (MIC).

In an affidavit deposed with the High Court
last week the minister, who is challenging an interim High Court ruling
protecting four freelance journalists who challenged the need for
accreditation under the MIC, Shamu said the commission, whose mandate was
nullified by the amendment to the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, had changed its name to the Zimbabwe Media Commission, a
constitutional body.

He said there "was otherwise no change in
the status of the commission (MIC) as a legal entity possessed with full
corporate powers".

He also said board members of the MIC had
running contracts which were not terminated by the Aippa amendment. He said
the members of the MIC therefore continued to be members of the Zimbabwe
Media Commission until the expiry of their contracts.

In
other words he is averring that the MIC led by Tafataona Mahoso has morphed
into the ZMC and should therefore continue to carry out its duties which
include accrediting journalists and registering media houses until such a
time as the ZMC is reconstituted.

"There is thus no gap or
vacuum created by the promulgation of the constitutional amendment insofar
as the existence of a commission to perform the functions prescribed under
Aippa is concerned," said Shamu. "That commission.is carrying out its
functions and should be left to carry out its functions."

That is giving Mahoso & Co a new lease of life to continue to regulate
the media even after the High Court said this arrogation of authority should
not be allowed.

The issue here is about the legitimacy of
the MIC. Raising loopy technical issues does not give the MIC any iota of
legitimacy. What we have here is an attempt by Zanu PF to breathe life into
an organisation whose tenure ended with the amendment to
Aippa.

The process of selecting members of a new commission is
moving at the speed of a glacier; all the better for those vouching for
Mahoso.

There are no proper timelines for this initial process
of appointing the commissioners. Then last month the Speaker of Parliament,
Austin Zvoma, revealed that an enabling law will be promulgated to govern
the operations of the ZMC; another delay which favours those keen to stall
the media reform process.

We consider this an affront to the
quest for media reform and a reflection of the debilitating discord in the
inclusive government. Therefore putting up a defence for the MIC is
defending the old order.

We will not be surprised at all to learn
that Shamu and his colleagues in Zanu PF are seeking to retain Mahoso in the
ZMC. He has become the de facto voice of an unreconstructed Zanu PF on
issues of media freedom and state regulation of the profession. This
particular leopard is not about to change its spots.

He
believes in statutory control of the media. He does not believe in the free
press. He is generally opposed to the opening up of the media. He is a
yesteryear denizen of Zimbabwe's dark past. His beliefs are at variance with
national aspirations. He does not represent the national ethos. But Mahoso
and those of his kind are useful to Zanu PF's power project.

This is clearly encapsulated in this extract from his recent article: ". in
the scheme of regime change politics, it is suicidal for a country to
liberalise its media policy in the immediate aftermath of sanctions or while
still enduring and fighting illegal sanctions," he said. "This is because
the immediate liberalisation of media policy is consistent with the
objective of illegal sanctions and of illegal regime
change."

So the attempt to readmit Mahoso through the ZMC back
door is all designed to retain the old party entrenchments which have become
an embarrassment. Considering Shamu's disclosures in last week's affidavit
Zanu PF can no longer pretend that it is for reform that is consistent with
the formation of the unity government. It is trying to defend the
indefensible. Zimbabweans have been demanding media plurality and not
control.

They need more diversity on national television and
radio and not the current soporific diet of repeats and shoddily produced
magazine programmes. They want to read alternative views in the print media.
This is the time to do away with relics of media repression and not ring
fence them.

"We can't solve problems using the same kind of
thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Editor's Memo: Cabinet Boycott Exposes Discord Within GNU

Thursday, 02
July 2009 18:14THE furore over President Robert Mugabe's "unilateral"
decision to move a cabinet meeting forward from Tuesday to Monday this week
would have, in itself, been a storm in a teacup were it not for the deeper
issues that have enveloped the inclusive government and continue to paralyse
it.

The move by Mugabe saw MDC-T ministers boycotting the cabinet
meeting, contrasting sharply with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's claims
on his whirlwind tour of the United States and Europe that the inclusive
government was working perfectly.

The cabinet issue was simply
a triggering event which brought to the fore the discord in the operations
of this government.

In itself, and shorn of the background, the
boycott would be quite irrational in that there is nothing irregular in
cabinet meetings (or any meetings) being moved forward or postponed by
whoever is mandated to chair them. In virtually all instances, this is the
chairman's prerogative.

The more fundamental problem is that
the "jelly-like" global political agreement (GPA) is built on good faith; it
is a gentlemen's agreement. Therefore, without good faith the whole edifice
is in peril. It may well be that the decision to bring forward the cabinet
meeting was inspired by bad faith which has now comprehensively affected the
workings of the inclusive government.

What the MDC-T
ministers' boycott of cabinet brought to the fore was that little has been
achieved in fully implementing the GPA and that there are no real reforms
taking place.

The saga also exposed Tsvangirai's
shortcomings.

During his international tour, the premier told
the world that the unity government had embarked on reforms that would lead
to full democratisation of the country. With a straight face, he claimed
that there were no farm invasions, no political prisoners, no human rights
abuses and no state-sanctioned abductions.

Tsvangirai even had
the gall to appeal to the international community not to exert pressure on
Mugabe to go because he is "part of the Zimbabwe solution" and without him
this country would degenerate into chaos. What is now common cause is that
his pronouncements did not go down well with his party and
ministers.

Last week, the MDC-T national executive held an
emergency meeting where it resolved that Sadc expeditiously deals with the
deadlocked outstanding issues of central bank governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney-General Johannes Tomana.

The executive also said
the inclusive government should urgently deal with the appointment and
swearing-in of provincial governors, ambassadors and the deputy Agriculture
minister Senator Roy Bennett as agreed by the principals of the three
parties in the GPA.

It also stated that the continued arrests,
detentions and human rights violations be referred to the guarantors and
that the inclusive government urgently deals with public media reform and
the facilitation of media freedom in general.

The same
concerns by the MDC-T national executive were raised by the ministers from
the party on Monday. Tsvangirai at a press conference at his Munhumutapa
offices on Tuesday endorsed the decision of his ministers to boycott the
cabinet meeting, but could not reconcile his utterances abroad with
statements issued by his party and ministers.

What has happened
clearly shows that senior members of the MDC-T have doubts about
Tsvangirai's stances on certain political and policy issues and on
Tsvangirai's interpretation of the working relationship between him and
Mugabe.

Some close to Tsvangirai have argued that the
premier while abroad showed a lot of maturity by keeping to the old adage
that you do not wash your dirty linen in public. However, the 85-year-old
leader seemed not to reciprocate when he addressed his Zanu PF central
committee meeting last week.

This in itself strongly suggests
that Mugabe was trying to appease an internal party constituency that has
been viscerally opposed to the GPA and its offspring -- the inclusive
government.

Mugabe is trying to navigate in crocodile-infested
Zanu PF waters, hence the statements that were directed at Tsvangirai and
his party. Mugabe has lashed out at Tsvangirai's trip and celebrated the
premier's failure to woo the needed financial aid to revitalise the economy.
The ageing veteran leader forgot that the trip was necessary for one main
reason: to facilitate Zimbabwe's re-engagement with the
West.

It is no secret that Zimbabwe has had an estranged
relationship with the West, arising mainly from the land reform programme
and the human rights problems that surrounded that programme and the flawed
elections since the year 2000.

There has been hostility and
this needed to be resolved and the starting point is setting up steps for
dialogue. The trip was the beginning in a long process because key issues
such as trust and confidence have to be re-established and these do not just
appear overnight, especially in view of the fact that the dominant players
in Zimbabwe and the West that collectively authored the sour relationship
are still very much in existence.

Secondly, Zimbabwe needs
an injection of liquid resources to resuscitate the economy. The West can
provide some of this help and it is necessary to promote the re-engagement
in order to facilitate the aid and assistance that Zimbabwe needs in the
short and long-term.

Zim Independent Letters

Thursday, 02 July 2009
20:40REPORTS that Zesa has been given the go-ahead to cut off power to
those who fail to pay show how much out of touch our so-called unity
government is with its electorate.

I would happily pay my Zesa
bill or any other of the utilities if I had received a salary.

Since February I have received an allowance of US$100 per month, which has
barely managed to keep my family fed and clothed.

We have no
medical aid, no insurance and have not managed to pay last term's or this
term's outrageous school fees.

We already live in abject
poverty and now they want to cut off the electricity -- which will be
followed rapidly, mark my words, by water and telephones.

Can I remind the minister who has given this go ahead and who more than
likely gets all the above mentioned facilities free, that our money is still
there in the banks -- just a number on a ledger -- because the government
scrapped the Zimbabwean dollar.

I did not see any directive
from the government to convert all our banked money into a useable
currency.All our hard earned savings were just scrapped by a stroke of
a government pen.

Can I also remind the minister that most
businesses had to start with a nil balance in February and some sectors are
only now starting to recover and make some money and starting to pay their
staff.

Have the people of this country not been through enough
in the past two to three years without the government sanctioning further
misery and distress.

Zesa's woes are as a result of their
inefficiency. Surely we should not be made to suffer some more because
putting us in the cold and dark will not help this country recover any time
soon.

Alan Watkins,Harare.

----------
Streamline Govt Departments

Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:33
ERIC Bloch's revelation that the 42 embassies are costing us US$20 million
per month is staggering.

This equates to two thirds of our fuel
requirements in normal conditions. Looking at the traffic now it is
probably nearly double our fuel bill.

What does Zesa need to
keep the country on full power - probably not as much as this US$20
million? This all begs the question how can embassies around the world on
average spend US$500 000 (R4 million) per month? An average budget could
be, say, office rent US$15 000, 10 staff wages US$20 000 (tax free), 10
house rents US$10 000, vehicles US$10 000, running expenses US$15 000. So
where does the other US$430 000 per month go?

Our TelOne
telephone charges are the highest in the world at 42c per minute. Marange
diamonds are reported to be earning someone US$200 million per month. When
the ministries were being divided (or should I say grabbed) I wondered why
Zanu PF was so determined to hang onto mines, telecoms and foreign affairs
ahead of other ministries. On face value it seemed that they had motives of
political and security control but now it seems they were hanging onto the
cash cows.

The government should investigate closely where this
massive foreign expenditure on the embassies is going - surely into the
pockets of Zanu PF chefs. Is this also the reason that Gideon Gono has to
be retained in power at all costs?

Nothing to do with what the
country's needs - just to safeguard the cash cows and distribution of their
wealth to keep the party financed in the face of total political
collapse?

Bloch also makes the point that we do not need a
large army, three spy agencies, a senate, governors and so many ministers
and deputy ministers when the social service ministries like health and
education are so understaffed and underpaid.

The Minister of
Finance in his next budget should look at reducing or eliminating
expenditure on bloated or irrelevant ministries and not budget around what
the existing bloated structures are asking for. Education and health
should, in all fairness, be given the biggest slice of the cake, the army
the smallest.

It is time for Zanu PF to get real and start
working with the MDC factions to create a better future for all Zimbabweans
and not devote all the time to entrenching themselves politically or lining
their pockets. If they want to safeguard what they have looted they better
wake up and smell the roses.

They will never win a free
election, the world will not accept another rigged one, so give up
gracefully while you are ahead and start thinking of the citizens of the
country for a change.

A McCormick,
Harare.

----------------Machipisa Police Station Conduct
Cause for Concern

Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:29I AM not
pleased at all by the manner in which the police station at Machipisa
shopping centre operates, especially the neighbourhood watch committee
members. They have abandoned their duty to protect members of the public and
their property but have instead turned against them.

Recently a 12-year-old girl was locked up for shoplifting along with a
vendor and some drunkards who were caught drinking in
public.

It is true that vending is an offence so is public
drinking but what are they doing about the touts, dangerous parking and the
tendency by commuter omnibus drivers to stop where there is no stop
sign?

The perpetrators of these crimes are not being arrested
because they give the police free rides. Vendors and public drinkers are
thus easy prey.

There are a lot of criminals on the run in
Highfield but they are failing to apprehend them which shows how poorly
organised they are.

Corruption is the order of the day at this
station. If they arrest vendors they confiscate their goods and share among
themselves or solicit bribes from victims for their freedom. They are now
becoming enemies of the residents. Some of them act as if they are above the
law.

My question is what criteria does the Home Affairs ministry
use to recruit these people in the police force?

Tired
resident,Highfield.

---------------ZRP
Responds

Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:27I ACKNOWLEDGE
receipt of the complaint against the police and wish to make the following
comment.Most police stations in Zimbabwe have a single block of cells
and the block of cells is fenced to allow for feeding and
exercises.

At times we use the fenced area as a screening
ground before suspects are locked in the cells. Shoplifting, illegal
vending are offences under the laws of the country.

The
Liquor Act also prohibits the drinking of beer in a public place. ZRP is
mandated to enforce all laws of the country. In that light I see nothing
wrong if police officers arrest people for engaging in unlawful activities
as cited above.

It s unfair for anyone -- let alone a resident in
Zimbabwe -- to suggest that the police are not enforcing traffic
legislation. The Zimbabwe Republic Police has a section that is dedicated to
deal with all traffic-related issues, the Traffic Branch.

The "tired" resident is free to visit any traffic station -- just as an eye
opener -- to see the extent of workload that the police has in respect of
the traffic offences that are cited in the complaint document.

Let me take this opportunity to inform the public that all goods that are
seized by the police as exhibits to an offence are disposed of following
laid down procedures. The seized goods do not belong to the arresting
officers or to any other police officers for that matter.

May I remind the resident and other members of the public on the importance
of making formal complaints to the police in the event that they are not
satisfied with the conduct or behaviour of police officers. The habit of
just generalising and writing letters to newspapers does not help, as it is
difficult for the police to take corrective action thereafter.

We encourage members to make use of our suggestion boxes, hotlines or to
approach a police station and seek to see the officer in charge so that
their grievances can be attended to promptly and
professionally.

We rely on information and support of the public in
our operations. The police are busy hunting for "wanted persons" and would
be more than happy if the resident could lead them to the criminals that are
said to be staying in Highfield.

Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:24IT is with a sad heart
that I learnt of the death of Senator Patrick Kombayi. He was indeed a true
son of the soil. He fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe and deserves to
lie at Heroes Acre as much as those who have been buried there.

Kombayi played a role in the struggle to liberate Zimbabwe from colonial
rule and also in the fight to democratise Zimbabwe. Rest in peace Cde
Kombayi, we the children of Zimbabwe will always remember you for your
strength and courage.

Patriot,
Harare.

--------------School Levies a big rip
off

Thursday, 02 July 2009 18:20I WANT to express my
gratitude to Education minister David Coltart for cutting the school fees we
have to pay.

However, that will not stop schools such as Avondale
Primary from making up for it somehow by calling an extra civvies' day, tie
day or a tracksuit day or maybe even another teachers' comfort levy as the
schools rip us off at every possible chance.We even had to pay for
extra classes during the holiday to make up for the time when the teachers
were not there.

May I point out to the minister that it is not
the school fees that we cannot afford but the levy.

Yes we know
that they are agreed to by the majority -- but at Avondale Primary, those of
us who are correctly zoned for the school are being out voted by all the
richer parents that bus their kids in from outside the zoned
area.

If we complain we are told to move our kids to a rural
school. I work and live in Avondale, why should I be parted from my
children? It is because the school prefers children of richer parents who
don't live anywhere near Avondale.

Maybe you should sit in
on the next PTA meeting and hear for yourself how we are laughed at and
shamed into accepting the will of the so-called majority.

H
Kamwendo,Harare.

--------------SMS The Zimbabwe
IndependentThursday, 02 July 2009 18:22I AM appealing to the
committee spearheading the constitution-making process to use local
languages for the particular area they will be in. In Gwanda they addressed
the people there in Shona. Was it sabotage or mere stupidity?
Junior Garanyemba.WE should not worry about the constitution-making
process or the draft to be used but should worry more about the contents
thereof. We should advocate for the devolution of power, proportional
representation and a bill of rights.Ndambitshekile,
Bulawayo.

THE Kariba draft constitution is a non-starter and it's
high time people participate in the making of a better Zimbabwe. No one
should impose it on the people because a constitution has nothing to do with
political parties but the people of Zimbabwe. Hypocrites should keep their
hands off the constitution and let the people decide their fate.
Mutape.

HOW can Morgan Tsvangirai say Robert Mugabe is
irreplaceable? Is Mugabe God who is not expendable? Now they are fighting
over the Kariba constitution draft issue and it is evident that Lovemore
Madhuku was right in saying that politicians cannot be trusted. We want a
say in how it is made!Observer.

IF Robert Mugabe and
Zanu PF are sincerely democratic as they claim -- particularly when it suits
them -- they should let the people determine the constitution they want.
Down with the Kariba draft!Taneta.

HOW can a country's
constitution be drafted without the people's input. Mugabe and Zanu PF's
arrogance is astounding. This GNU just provided them with an opportunity to
get themselves off the targeted sanctions list and resume their shopping
escapades overseas. It's pretty clear addressing bread and butter issues is
at the bottom of the list for these guys.Political
Analyst.

THE Prime Minister must leave Zanu PF to fight the issue
of sanctions alone until Zanu PF lifts the various sanctions it has imposed
on the people of Zimbabwe.Analyst.

WE live in a
really funny part of the world. Morgan Tsvangirai's visit and meeting with
world leaders should have been the main story but the denial of a visa to
Obert Mpofu becomes the major story according to the Herald.Clerka
weDowasuro.THE rhetoric of sticking to the Kariba draft is certainly
Zanu PF's strategy to prevent the making of a new constitution that reduces
Robert Mugabe's hold on power and therefore perpetuates the abuse of state
power and resources for the benefit of a few. Now that Mugabe has spoken you
will see how his blind followers will fall over each other supporting the
Kariba draft and MDC will not do anything to stop it. This is where Lovemore
Madhuku's NCA will be proved right and the democratic transition will fail.
Tsvangirai's political career might be hanging in the balance if this
process fails because he told us that he is an equal partner in the GNU.
Equal my foot! CC.

HAVING gone through the hell
on earth of the past 29 years, I don't see the reason why a normal person
would support Zanu PF.Observer.

ZIMBABWEANS are becoming confused
about the issue of sanctions. The media, the GNU and political analysts are
calling for the removal of sanctions which we thought were targeted. Can
someone clarify on the nature of the "illegal" sanctions imposed on
Zimbabwe? I know of sanctions imposed on the Rhodesian government and would
like to know if those were targeted as well.IHZ.

GIDEON Gono saved Zanu PF from collapsing instead of the country. That's why
Zanu PF protects him. We need a non-partisan governor of the central bank.
Zimbabweans need him to go and not the West as Zanu PF propagandists
claim.Patriot.

CAN Zesa please explain why Kuwadzana
five, six and seven has no power and yet they are asking us to pay bills
equal to those who always have power. We are using more money on firewood
and candles.Tinyareiwo.

THE manner in which Econet lines
were sold by its staff in Mutare is very bad. I think it is better if it
uses its other methods of distribution. The number of lines sold on the
black market would be reduced.T Chilaz.

IN with so much
hype and out with a whimper! A hint of Spain's mediocrity was once again
shown at the Confederations Cup.Nut09.

Put a respected auditor
in charge of Zimbabwe's funding

Sir, Your assessment of
Morgan Tsvangirai's recent visit to western capitals to raise investment
funding for Zimbabwe is correct ("Morgan's dilemma", June 25). He gained
positive sympathy and media attention wherever he went, but no hard funding.
And that, aside from not helping his country and its people, weakens his
political position at home. Sadly, you say, this was inevitable. I have a
different view.

The day before your editorial you carried an extensive
report of a London Mining Conference on Zimbabwe ("Harare seeks to lure
mining investors", June 24), which Mr Tsvangirai keynoted. Other platform
participants at the conference, which was very well attended by mining
investors and analysts, included both well-established and new mining
companies in Zimbabwe. What is important is that by the end of the
conference there was a strong consensus among those present that the process
of what is in effect regime change in Zimbabwe is irreversible. But how
smoothly this will happen depends very largely on the attitudes and actions
of western countries and international organisations.

The reluctance
of governments and international organisations to donate funds directly to
the Zimbabwe state as presently constituted, as opposed to making laudable
donations to non-governmental organisations, is understandable. But why not
appoint one of the top four auditing firms represented in Zimbabwe to
receive and manage all funding from governments and international
organisations?

The firm would also be responsible for supervising and
awarding any tenders and contracts which relate to that funding. I believe
this is something that Tsvangirai and his MDC colleagues would welcome but
they can't make the proposal themselves because of the risk of being accused
of detracting from Zimbabwean sovereignty. How about the European Union or
the International Finance Corporation suggesting this?

It is in
everybody's interest to see Zimbabwe on its feet; and given that western
countries and international organisations are in any event going to provide
the funding, they have a political and humanitarian responsibility -
especially given Africa's lack of imagination - to ensure that the process
presently underway occurs with all deliberate speed.

Ian Smith versus Robert Mugabe

WHENEVER we Zimbabweans in Lilongwe get together, we invariably end up
talking about home. I assume that is the case with Zimbabweans in other parts of
the world.

People share experiences about how Malawians talk about our predicament with
glee. It has to be remembered that during the federation Malawi was a dormitory
for cheap labour for our farms and mines. We derided them as “Manyasarandi” – a
term derived from Nyasaland, Malawi’s name during the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland. We talk of the shame of being fed by the 14th poorest country on the
planet and how we ended up in this mess.

What fascinates me about these discussions is they always end with several of
my compatriots proclaiming “Smith was a much better than Mugabe”. Those prepared
to say this usually do so in the company of a few trusted friends. I always
laugh at how their voices are lowered to mere whispers once they start mimicking
that line. Whenever I challenge them to vocalise these sentiments in the
presence of all and sundry I always get told; “It’s not done.”

The late Ian Smith

I first heard the line “Smith aive nani” meaning (Smith was much better)
being said publicly many years ago. Ironically it was said by an ex-combatant
of the war of liberation. The occasion was the burial of some national hero. As
usual, President Mugabe presented his lengthy diatribe against “enemies of the
state”. Then from the blue, this war vet whose name I forget shouted on top of
his voice, “Aiwawo, kutaura zvisina maturo. Smith aive nani” literally meaning
“All you said was just nonsense. Smith was much better.”

Needless to say the gentleman was hastily shunted away by the police and
taken to the cells. It was later reported that, having been kept in police
custody without charge for a couple of weeks, the offender was released because
after a thorough perusal of our statute books, they could not find the
appropriate offence under which to charge him. However, in order to plug that
loophole a law was put together which now makes it an offence to bring the
person of the head of state into disrepute, read, he cannot be criticised in
words deemed insulting.

The next time I heard similar sentiments being expressed was in January of
2007. My two siblings and I visited a homestead which lies at the border with
what used to be Jock Kay’s farm. Sadly, the proud new owners now grow grass
where world class tobacco used to be grown. The roads that used to be maintained
by the farming community were so bad that it took us three times longer than it
used to complete the journey.

After the usual routine of enquiring after each other’s health, my sister’s
father in law, humorous as ever, whispered in my ear, “Regai ndikutaurirei
chokwadi maiguru vaDudley, Smith aive nani. Ini kubva ndichiberekwa ndanga
ndisati ndamboita Christmas isina chingwa. Zvakatouya naivo vaMugabe”. This
means “To be honest with you, Dudley’s aunt, Smith was much better. Never before
had we ever celebrated Christmas without bread. Mugabe started all this”.

When I burst out laughing, the old man urgently begged me not to repeat what
he had said because those around could not be trusted not to report him to the
“war vets”. He said one could be killed for expressing those sorts of
sentiments.

Here is the crux of the matter. Where other democracies are at liberty to
critique their leadership, in Zimbabwe, merely voicing the opinion that the
white prime minister was better than his successor can result in death. How did
we become so barbaric?

I will give my views of Ian Smith first. An unrepentant white supremacist
right up to his death, he plunged Zimbabwe into an unnecessary civil war which
resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Egotistic as ever, at
independence he chose to continue at the helm of white leadership even though it
would have been in the interest of his constituency to be led by someone capable
of reconciling with blacks. Having proclaimed over and over again that blacks
would not rule “in a thousand years”, he was determined more than ever to prove
that the new political leadership would fail dismally.

Having excluded blacks from fully participating in the affairs of the country
and thereby denying them the desperately needed experience, he knew that failure
was a real possibility and he had no intention of being a magnanimous leader.
Mugabe expressed his disappointment over the white vote for Smith in the 1985
elections, (even though he had, in all fairness, bended backwards to accommodate
them) by sacking Dennis Norman as Agriculture Minister.

This is where I see similarities between Mugabe and Smith. Just as egotistic
as Smith, he viewed the white vote as a personal rejection by whites of his hand
of reconciliation. He sought revenge by sacking a man who had proved that his
interests lay in serving Zimbabwe. When after a decade of fairly good
performance Mugabe realised that things were starting to go downhill, he like
Ian Smith, still chose to continue running the country.

It also has to be pointed out that Mugabe, from the onset, never acted as a
national leader. We had a foretaste of things to come when in 1980, after being
confronted by Lord Soames regarding the fact that his supporters were denying
PF-Zapu supporters the right to campaign in rural Masvingo, he unashamedly
retorted that it was the right thing to do because that was his “back yard”. He
argued Joshua Nkomo was at liberty to campaign in Matabeleland.

It therefore has to be said neither Mugabe nor Smith was a national leader in
the true sense of the word. Smith catered for the interests of the white
community while Mugabe was quite happy, even at independence, to seek the
legitimacy of only a segment of the population. The only difference is that
while Smith never hid his disdain for the black population, Mugabe sought to
portray himself as someone who cared for all his people. Yet, even when fighting
broke out between former ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) and
former ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army), at Entumbane in late 1980,
Mugabe failed to display the national leadership that was expected of him.

The similarities of the two men do not end there. Both resorted to the use of
repressive legislation to remain in power. Where it was expected that Mugabe
would dismantle the battery of repressive legislation that Smith used to
suppress the rise of Black Nationalism, Mugabe kept the laws firmly in place,
using them against the very people he had promised liberty. Sadly, such
legislation as AIPPA (the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act)
is even more repressive than Smith’s media laws. The Citizenship Act is
primitive and an embarrassment to those who have seek to portray Mugabe as a
Pan-Africanist.

Interestingly, it was only after independence that we had students getting
seriously injured or even killed during the course of demonstrations. I sadly
remember how one student, Batanai Hadzizi, died at the hands of the riot police
in April 2001 during a demonstration at the University of Zimbabwe. Mugabe, as
Chancellor, did not express regret at the unnecessary demise of such a young
life whose only crime was to behave like students do around the globe –
demonstrate as a way of expressing dissatisfaction.

While white Rhodesians from all walks of life were extremely proud to send
their offspring to study at the University College of Rhodesia, neither our
President the chancellor of state universities, nor any members of his
government are proud enough of the University of Zimbabwe and the host of other
institutions of higher learning that they established after independence. These
are the same people who never get tired of telling us that they are the
supremely patriotic.

The other thing that I find interesting when comparing Mugabe and Smith is
how they viewed state resources. Mugabe, after winning the elections in 1980,
invited Smith for a meeting at his house in Mount Pleasant. It is quite
revealing that Smith drove himself to meet the Prime Minister designate in a
Peugeot 404. Prime Minister Mugabe, while he started with more modest types of
Mercedes Benzes, has since graduated to one of the most expensive models, always
escorted by one of the longest motorcades of any head of state on the
planet.

I believe it is also necessary to look at the sort of country that one of the
protagonists handed over to his successor and the sort that the current
protagonist is likely to handover.

Ian Smith bequeathed to Robert Mugabe a nation divided along racial lines. I
deeply resent the fact that Rhodesia classified me as a second class citizen.
The country’s resources were disproportionately allocated, to the extent where
the whites had the best and more of everything. It hurt terribly for those in
employment to be paid only a fraction of what whites earned for similar
jobs.

It however has to be acknowledged that the country’s institutions and
infrastructure were in top notch condition. I recall how during the mid-eighties
my niece’s school organised a trip that took her and her class mates to Victoria
Falls. The headmaster made an impromptu decision to take the children across the
border into Zambia. They went up to the town of Livingstone. Upon their return,
my niece talked about the many pot holes that they had seen in Livingstone as
one of the highlights of her trip. They were a novelty because she had never
seen them in Zimbabwe.

Our public transport was virtually unmatched on our continent. The then
United Omnibus Company’s buses ran on a reliable time table. At independence
Mugabe figured that since the bus company was owned by government, it meant
Zanu-PF did not have to pay for services provided. All they needed was to
announce that their supporters could be picked “at the usual pick up points” and
the company was obliged to do it for free. In place of buses we now have a fleet
of far from road-worthy private owned mini buses. Public transport is now in
such a dire state that many workers only get home towards mid-night. The
National Railways of Zimbabwe is a shadow of its former self.

Metered taxes were available all over town at affordable prices while Air
Zimbabwe had a fleet of nearly two dozen planes. We were also viewed as a
country with very minimal corruption. Power cuts were virtually unknown. How did
we end up having our airport built for us by a company which lost the tender and
at twice the cost that had been quoted by the winning company? Theirs was going
to be twice as big.

Short of an unprecedented and miraculous recovery, Mugabe is going to
bequeath to his successor a wreck of a country, not only divided along racial
and ethnic lines, but sadly, a politically polarised one too. The gap between
the poor and the rich has widened many times over. Mugabe made cholera a reality
and the worst such epidemic on the African continent in 15 years. This in a
country whose children only used to learn about it at school less than a decade
ago!

Painful as it is, and much as I resent both Ian Smith and Robert Mugabe for
what they did to our country, I have to admit that Robert Mugabe, the man who
sacrificed so much for the liberation of Zimbabwe, has proved to be a worse
ruler than Smith. The suffering that he has wrought on his people has proved to
be much worse than under white rule. That is the very unfortunate truth. He
promised liberty and prosperity and nearly three decades later delivered
repression and abject poverty. Please, dear reader, do not expect me to accept
repression and deprivation just because the man in charge is black. I do not
believe that racial discrimination is necessarily worse than that based on
ethnicity or party affiliation. All forms of discrimination are evil.

If you were a white Rhodesian and opposed to Smith’s policies, he could cause
you a lot of discomfort and the worst that could happen to you was deportation.
If you are black and opposed to Mugabe’s policies, you could end up permanently
disabled, lose your property or even your life. If you are white, the
probability of getting killed for opposing Mugabe is actually lower than if you
are black. That is the irony.

Ian Smith bequeathed a country, which though dependent on South Africa for
vital trade routes and raw materials, was an industrial giant in its own right.
Mugabe is going to deliver a de-industrialised country which has effectively
become South Africa’s bantustan. Our people now work in South Africa and other
countries in their millions and send money home to enable relatives to buy South
African goods that fill our supermarkets.

That is an unforgivable injustice to future generations.

It is tempting to want to blame sanctions for our predicament. The truth
however shows that our country started its downward descent in the early
nineties. Our power infrastructure started showing signs of distress way back
then due to poor maintenance and lack of investment in the energy sector. The
plunder of the War Victims Compensation Fund, the DRC adventure, the huge and
unbudgeted pay outs to war vets, unbridled greed and corruption and the chaotic
land reform exercise amongst many other blunders have no link whatsoever to
ZIDERA or the travel bans.

And now the Marange diamond fields saga! It is time to be
self-critical.